[krazykat]

I'm heading to the snow in a couple of months, and I'll naturally be taking some camera gear. However, I have no experience taking pictures in a snowy environment. Does anyone have any photographic advice, e.g. how to set exposure? Also, is there any general advise about carrying & using camera gear in sub-zero conditions?

Thanks.

[bertwert]

Overexpose by a a step or two, otherwise the snow will turn out grey. And now the whole world is a light reflector, makes for easy subject lighting

Lots of great tips in this excellent article by @mattb123; https://www.pentaxforums.com/articles/photo-articles/ski-photography-guide.html

Speaking of exposure, another thing to consider is exposure compensation (the +/- button). When a scene is very bright, like a snow-covered landscape, the camera's meter will not set the exposure correctly on its own. The camera assumes the scenes you photograph are going to average out to be 18% gray and sets the exposure accordingly. When a scene is very bright, the exposure is too quick and what should look like white snow will come out underexposed, looking gray or blue. For a snowy scene, plan on setting the exposure compensation to +1 or so. The amount you need to set will vary with the light, sky, and the proportion of snow to other things like trees and rocks. With lots of snow and bright sun you may want to go higher, like +1.5. With more trees and shade only +.5 might be enough. I recommend using the histogram and enabling the blinking highlight/shadow warning feature to try to avoid blowing out the snow and correctly exposing other things like your skier. Monitor this and adjust as necessary as conditions change.

Have fun out there!

[lotech]

HDR may help too.

[crazy4oldcars]

Leave the camera in the car overnight. The difference in temperature can fog everything up until the temperatures level out.

Kirk B.

[othar]

Leave the camera in the car overnight. The difference in temperature can fog everything up until the temperatures level out.

Kirk B.

I usually only have problems entering a warm room with a cold camera (not really recommended -> better leave the camera in the bag till the temperature had time to slowly adjust) but not the other way around (although you might get condensing water in the camera when you change lenses in a warm highly humid room and go in the cold afterwards).
Nevertheless if you leave the camera in the cold over night take the batteries out, they don't have a fable for the cold.

[ramseybuckeye]

Keep spare batteries warm in your pants pocket, cold batteries don't last as long. Don't worry about taking your camera from warm to cold, it's coming back to warm that causes condensation. Usually when I go hiking in snow I drive someplace first, so when I'm done I get into a cold car which gradually heats up as I drive and therefore, no condensation. If you go directly into warm from cold, wrap or bag your camera for a while. mattb123 is the resident master of ski photography here, read his article. I would suggest taking a microfibre towel of lens cloth in case you get snow on your lens. This is unusual, but it has happened to me when I was out in wet heavy snow, temperature right around freezing, and no or little wind. I don't like to carry a lot of gear while hiking, I use a small sling (ThinkTank Turnstyle) which works great, slide it around in front of you and never have to set anything down in the snow. I don't like to make a lens change out in the snow, but it's not snowing and windy, you can do it. Good luck and have fun!

[aaacb]

In addition to all the advice above, get gloves that are comfortable and warm enough. For me snow shots mean long hikes in the mountains, so I have two pairs of gloves to adjust to temperature changes. Sometimes I need to remove the warmer gloves if I need to change more than what's available with a control dial, keeping hands warm on a metal camera is the main challenge for me I leave my camera in p or av and use live view or test shots to gauge exposure and adjust.

[bertwert]

In addition to all the advice above, get gloves that are comfortable and warm enough. For me snow shots mean long hikes in the mountains, so I have two pairs of gloves to adjust to temperature changes. Sometimes I need to remove the warmer gloves if I need to change more than what's available with a control dial, keeping hands warm on a metal camera is the main challenge for me I leave my camera in p or av and use live view or test shots to gauge exposure and adjust.

About gloves, I have a pair of biathlon gloves (warm and has dexterity for using a rifle) I wear when shooting (a camera, but also a rifle ) and if it's real cold outside, I'll throw mitts over top which I can slip on and off easily. I've found it's not hard to operate my K-50 with even thicker gloves on, especially if all the settings are done already and I just need to twist e-dials and hit the shutter.

[reh321]

Look at snow on a cloudy day - it does have a touch of blue.

If you are going to show any contours at all, you will need either gray or blue to show that {technically speaking, white is (255,255,255) - anything less is "gray"}

[mikesbike]

bertwert is right. Essentially the difference from other outdoor circumstances is a higher quantity of bright areas, which will fool the camera's meter into reducing exposure as a reaction. This will produce dark people and gray snow. The degree of this depends on how much snow (combined with how much sky) is in the photo compared with darker areas.

[Mwellman]

My biggest issue is the condensation on the cold kit bringing it in, and no I will not leave it in the car, Best trick I have used is to put all I can in bags outside, then bring the stuff in and put it in thee refrigerator for a few hours. then bring it in to the house for a few more hours before finally taking kit out of the ziplock bags. Photo was taken late night in Canmore AB. Temperature was -35c. After, yes, the camera and lens went strait into the ziplock and then the fridge

[krazykat]

Thanks for all the good tips and also for linking that great article. I now feel prepared!