Comments on: Photography in the Winter Season

By: Bogdan

Bogdan — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:48:24 +0000

Jim, you say you feel like photography has become a two-step process. The fact is, it has always been this way, except for the past few years when point-and-shoot compacts became very popular. Before the digital era, 35-mm photographers used to add a lot of color balancing and expore retouching during the developpement of the negatives and printing of the final photos. So, take this into account before leaving all thos creative decisions to your camera’s cpu instead of taking them yourself. Needless to say, i am a big fan of RAW, i like to get exactly what i want out of my photos, not what my camera thinks i want.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 07:16:53 +0000

@Jim: It might be more common now, but how many people just go into a darkroom and take the first thing they print? I think photography has always been about tweaking the picture after the fact.

Great article, and it definitely inspired me to go out and enjoy my admittedly lame San Francisco winter.

Also, as the rains are starting in many places, might it be time to put together another collection of rain shots?

By: Andre

Andre — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 05:13:34 +0000

I would like to thank the Website owner for the opportunity to post my article and take the chance to respond to some comments.

Jim: Itâ€™s the eternal battle, RAW or JPG, Digital or Analog. It is as much a question of faith as it is of technical reasons and once people made up their minds I find it very hard to discuss. My reason is simple, a RAW is a linear 12-bit or 14-bit file and a JPG is a nonlinear processed 8-bit file. The JPG file has white balance and exposure â€œburnedâ€ into the file. I simply like to â€œdevelopâ€ my own.

Shoppista: The large landscape is unforgiving under such conditions, but macro photography will benefit from the big soft box overhead. Try to exclude overcast skies from your photographs. Street photography is another thing I like to do under these conditions. If the clouds have a lot of definition (not just white overcast), you can get dramatic pictures by exposing for the sky and boosting local contrast in the sky afterwards.

Henrique: Good point! I never thought about it, since I always back up to an image tank that has to warm up too.
L-Jay: Great That means soft light all day. Long exposures in pre-dawn light will result in brilliant colors. I always wanted to travel to Iceland or Alaska where I can experience this.

Joni: That sounds great. I saw a travel show with Anthony Bourdain once. He was in Iceland in Winter and complaining about the cold all the time. All I could think about was: â€œLook at that fantastic soft light, I could take great shots 8 hours a day and never have to worry about harsh lightâ€.

By: Mark Olson

Mark Olson — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:08:33 +0000

Thanks for all the tips! I had no idea that shooting in the winter … in places where there is snow … that it was so so complicated. The snow should be arriving soon in Sweden, so I am getting kinda excited to try some of this out … Hello RAW mode. I am a photo noob, so RAW is not usually my first priority, so maybe this winter season will be exactly what I need to motivate me over the long Swedish winter.

Thanks!

By: John K

John K — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:43:19 +0000

Jim,

I shoot RAW for everything but point and shoot occasions like family gatherings. When shooting RAW I try very hard to get it right so I don’t have to do a lot of post-processing, and I generally don’t have to do much. But, I do like that I can tweak the WB if necessary. Also, by overexposing in RAW (but not clipping highlights) I can usually get a little more detail out then with JPEG. Also, I can tweak the sharpening (which all digital photos need-either in camera with JPEG or shooting RAW and doing it in Photoshop) and have more control over it.

“Hi, great tips for winter shooting. Iâ€™m not a fan of raw shooting, but otherwiseâ€¦
I just donâ€™t understand all the need for post processing after the shoot. To me it seems as if photography has become a two-step process. Why not just compose/light better in the first place?”

By: Rick

Rick — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 14:19:10 +0000

I like the 2 stop overexpose suggestion here in the mountains of Utah we will start to see snow any day now and shooting in that environment takes some real practice.

By: Joni

Joni — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:16:04 +0000

These are good winter photography tips, if you happen to live in California. But Nordic countries are a different world and you have a dozen more things to worry about, for example, does the sun rise above the horizon. :)

By: L-Jay

L-Jay — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:50:47 +0000

Hm – what can you do when the sun doesn’t even come up over the horizon in winter? Blue light creeps up for about two hours here in mid-winter. Do you still use the same technique as above to shoot in a snowy landscape?

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 22:01:12 +0000

Although not completely on topic, I’d like to share my recent rediscovery of just how absolutely intensely important a circular polarized filter can be for catching fall and winter colors. I had to spend a lot of time developing RAW images, tweaking contrast and saturation, recently. The images I captured on my first “fall foto safari” just didn’t come close to replicating my memory of the intense fall colors. Then I took another batch more recently when the colors were much less saturated – but used my CPF and.. Wow! There was the rich blue sky and the deep red leaves and the crisp bright yellows and rich greens. I’m kicking myself for blowing the first opportunity. See if you can guess which is with and without a filter – http://www.flickr.com/photos/ruinaudio/sets/72157607995620117/

By: Henrique

Henrique — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 19:10:36 +0000

I suppose you could take your memory card right out of the camera when you finish shooting and put it in one of the inside pockets of your jacket, that way you let your body heat start warming them up so you can pop them in a card reader and start enjoying them as soon as you make it back to the house. Maybe that works maybe not. just a thought