[mde1970]

OK, so my yearly snowboarding trip is almost upon us and this time I'm planning on taking my trusty K-m with me to the French Alps. I'll be limited to a couple of Lenses, Sigma 17-70 for a walkabout lens in Village and a Tammy 28-80 (which I picked up for £30) which I'll take with me when I'm up in the mountains.

Subject matter will be varied from mountain scenery, nature and some of friends skiing/boarding.

I have read a couple of links but would be interested in people’s advice for shooting in these conditions so I can maximise my success rate.

thanks in advance.

[JohnX]

Give the camera/lens plenty of time to acclimatise to the temperature and avoid condensation. Put in a plastic bag before you move from one temperature zone to another, suck out as much air as possible, leave for at least an hour in the 'new' zone before using. If you do get condensation, put the camera and lens in a dry plastic bag with dry rice; the rice will absorb the moisture and is easier to get hold of than silica gel.

Keep batteries in your pocket when outside for as long as possible before use; performance drops with temperature.

Use a polariser for those deep blue skys.

Remember your camera will try to average exposure = grey snow, so dial in some '+' exposure compensation. I'd start around +1.5.

Is there that much difference between the two lenses to warrant taking both?

Have fun!!

[bdery]

You got good advice from the previous post. Taking your camera from warm temperature to cold temperature should not be a problem, warming it is when you want to use the plastic bag.

Regarding exposure, most modern cameras will work well enough with snow. As for me, I find that if you overexpose, you do get a white scene, but you loose a lot of the snow's texture. I prefer to correct the images in post-processing, where I have more control and can preserve both the colours, exposure, and texture.

[mde1970]

The £30 Tammy is my 'danger lens' and I wont be too upset if it somehow gets damaged (although I'll be doing my upmost to avoid this). I find that 28mm is sometimes not wide enough, especially for indoor groups shots which is why I'm taking the 17-70 (but yep, a valid question).

Very good point about condensation. I'd not given this much thought so will come prepared with a bag and rice :-)

Thanks!

[mysticcowboy]

Besides condensation, you also want to be careful about metering. In snow, your camera will want to underexpose by a couple of stops or so, trying to make the snow a neutral gray.

[Tom Woj]

Remembered a youtube vid I saw a while back of some guy on his snowboarding/ski trip. Seems like some good tips in it.

WP Photography - Photography in Austria - YouTube

[mde1970]

great tips guys. just about to watch that youtube vid as well.

cheers.

[sinjin]

Echoing the overexposure comments above:

Put your camera in M,
Spot meter off the snow and dial in the shutter/aperture combo you like which meters about +2 over exposure,
Shoot with reckless abandon.

I find shooting in snow liberating.

[westmill]

OK, so my yearly snowboarding trip is almost upon us and this time I'm planning on taking my trusty K-m with me to the French Alps. I'll be limited to a couple of Lenses, Sigma 17-70 for a walkabout lens in Village and a Tammy 28-80 (which I picked up for £30) which I'll take with me when I'm up in the mountains.

Subject matter will be varied from mountain scenery, nature and some of friends skiing/boarding.

I have read a couple of links but would be interested in people’s advice for shooting in these conditions so I can maximise my success rate.

thanks in advance.

Use the spot meter ! Spot meter off anything resembling 18% grey. Spot mtering from the face should work fine if people in the shot.
Simply lock exposure with AE lock before recomposing !

[eddie1960]

just throw a grey card in your pocket and spot meter off it. and use a polariser it will make everything Pop.

[tnnurse17]

Thanks for all the help, This should help with some snow coming soon.

[grainbelt]

Be careful with white balance. Use the snow or a grey card - you can get some really funky blue/purple snow if you aren't careful.

I would also shoot RAW the whole time, which will give you more latitude over WB and exposure adjustments when you get home.

Have fun!