Shooting in Snow / Ski Shots

Sleepy

I'm in the middle of planning a skiing holiday and have decided to bring my camera and take an afternoon to try and get some shots of the guys skiing. I've the 450D with the kit lens and the Canon 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS.

Any tips on shooting skiing / snowboarding? Advice on protecting the camera in such cold weather? Ideas for shots to try and capture?

I've never brought my dSLR skiing but I have brought my compact.What I did notice is that the camera has a tough time evaluating the correct exposure.This is due to the sun reflecting off the snow.This means you probably won't get good results from aperture priority mode,so using manual or shutter priority mode is reccomended.

As for keeping it protected I know a lad who put his camera + lens in a stainless steel briefcase while skiing,not sure how expensive one of these would be but it's one way to keep it safe.

There was another thread on this recently enough with some good info http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055454060

bbbbb

Have you been skiing before?
I would go with a cheap point & shoot tbh.
From the Canon specs:
"Operating Environment 0 – 40 °C, 85% or less humidity". Most ski resorts will easily get below 0, even during the day.

Cold, damp/snow, condensation would all be a worry.

Mr. Grieves

Deleted User wrote: »

This means you probably won't get good results from aperture priority mode,so using manual or shutter priority mode is reccomended.

Not sure sure what you mean by this. The lightmeter will come up with the same EV in all 3 modes, so unless you deliberately over or underexpose (which you can do in aperture priority mode too) the results will be the same. Or am I wrong?

My understanding is that if the lightmeter is looking at something which is a lighter colour than neutral grey (like bright white snow), it will think the scene is bright and underexpose as a consequence. Conversely, if your subject is dark in colour (the dark green leaves of firs etc always seem to give me trouble), the camera will tend to over expose.

Anyway, OP, if there's a lot of snow in your shot I'd tend to go for a higher EV than the lightmeter suggests (overexpose), but more importantly, shoot RAW and you can adjust later. Snow often confuses the camer's automatic white balance too.

Mr. Grieves

Mr. Grieves wrote:

Not sure sure what you mean by this. The lightmeter will come up with the same EV in all 3 modes, so unless you deliberately over or underexpose (which you can do in aperture priority mode too) the results will be the same. Or am I wrong?

My understanding is that if the lightmeter is looking at something which is a lighter colour than neutral grey (like bright white snow), it will think the scene is bright and underexpose as a consequence. Conversely, if your subject is dark in colour (the dark green leaves of firs etc always seem to give me trouble), the camera will tend to over expose.

What I found with my compact(in auto) was that when I was taking a photo of a skiier,the snow took up a major portion of the image.This meant that my camera exposed for the snow rather than the skiier which then left the skiier nearly black.This is why I had to use manual the whole time.Wouldn't the exact same thing happen in Av mode?

kjt

Sleepy wrote: »

Advice on protecting the camera in such cold weather? Ideas for shots to try and capture?

I'd advise keeping it in a Peli-case, they protect your gear & keep it completely dry.

Enjoy the holiday!

DaireQuinlan

Mr. Grieves wrote: »

Not sure sure what you mean by this. The lightmeter will come up with the same EV in all 3 modes, so unless you deliberately over or underexpose (which you can do in aperture priority mode too) the results will be the same. Or am I wrong?

My understanding is that if the lightmeter is looking at something which is a lighter colour than neutral grey (like bright white snow), it will think the scene is bright and underexpose as a consequence. Conversely, if your subject is dark in colour (the dark green leaves of firs etc always seem to give me trouble), the camera will tend to over expose.

Anyway, OP, if there's a lot of snow in your shot I'd tend to go for a lower EV than the lightmeter suggests, but more importantly, shoot RAW and you can adjust later. Snow often confuses the camer's automatic white balance too.

Yeah thats the case I've found at any rate. Not snow, but similar, sunlit breaking waves. The camera under-exposes it because of the reason above (namely it reckons -it's- job is to make everything as close to 18% grey as possible) because it doesn't know what makes up the scene. I dialled in a stop of over exposure and it fixed it nicely. That was with a relatively unsophisticated meter though (on a film F4), maybe modern colour matrix meters are more intelligent. If in doubt, bracket :-)

Alun

Generally speaking for snow scenes, over-expose by about 1 to 1.5 stops (counter-intuitive, I know, but otherwise you end up with dull grey snow rather than white). Also always use raw and you can play with the WB afterwards.

oshead

Rather than thinking in Colours (though colours have different reflective properties) try and think about how much light is being reflected from the scene into the camera. If the scene is very bright and reflective like snow, the camera will try and nutralize the light and thus dulling the image.

One good way to get an accurate reading off available light is to meter off a clear blue sky. Not the clouds or the sun. Point the camera at the clear blue sky and press the meter button. Clear Blue Sky = 18% Grey. Then point the camera at the scene and shoot. You can make fine adjustments to your exposure after that.

Hope this helps

Dave OS

nilhg

Deleted User wrote: »

What I found with my compact(in auto) was that when I was taking a photo of a skiier,the snow took up a major portion of the image.This meant that my camera exposed for the snow rather than the skiier which then left the skiier nearly black.This is why I had to use manual the whole time.Wouldn't the exact same thing happen in Av mode?

I suppose it comes down to whether you want detail in the snow or the skier, if the skier is backlit by the sun you will have a difficult job getting a natural looking shot.

Expose to the right and shoot RAW is a good rule of thumb.

Alun

nilhg wrote: »

Expose to the right and shoot RAW is a good rule of thumb.

"Expose to the right" ??

Mr. Grieves

I've heard that about metering off blue sky before, but I'm not sure about it. You'd want the sun to be very high in the sky and for you to be facing away from it. What about evenings/cloudy days. Metering off your hand, which is pretty neutral, and more likely to be in the same light as your subject might be better. I suppose you don't have to be perfectly accurate if you're shooting RAW.

Your DSLR's meter will prob do a better job than a cheaper compact's anyway, like Daire said.

Alun

It should also be mentioned that many modern compacts will have a "Snow scene" mode or some such which will probably achieve much the same effect.

nilhg

Alun wrote: »

"Expose to the right" ??

Link

RobH

Alun wrote: »

"Expose to the right" ??

I presume he meant to the right-hand side of the exposure meter, ie overexpose slightly.

That, or he likes all his subjects left of frame :P

Mr. Grieves

Interesting reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_system

Sleepy

Thanks for all the tips. Not planning on skiing with the camera on my back, I've skied a total of two weeks in the last 3 years so it'd just be plain stupidity to try and ski with it on my back after having not been on the slopes for 2 years!

I'd also recommend the Peli case. I have a few for transporting things more fragile then cameras and they are great!

La La

there's no way in hell i'd ever take my d80 up the hill. my sony cybershot (which died yesterday - RIP) has always done me good - although you do have to keep point and shoot cameras well insulated from the cold or your batteries will die.





these were both taken with the cybershot. you have to overcompensate for the fact that cameras can try and auto adjust the exposure to accomodate for all the white - which can often result in the snow looking grey.

i only have a few snow pics on this flickr album, but have a peek if you're bored

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lollyburn/sets/72157606863657731/

Paulw

Here's something on Tipsfromthetopfloor which might be of use.

City-Exile

Deleted User wrote: »

I'd also recommend the Peli case. I have a few for transporting things more fragile then cameras and they are great!

I find Storm Cases to be just as good and cheaper.

Tactical

Explorer cases are as sturdy as the Peli cases, very similar but a bit cheaper.

They're good quality and have most of the features of the Peli.