Winter storms are raging across the country today and that’s bad news for motorists. But once the weather clears up, all the new snow covering the ground provides great opportunities for intrepid landscape photographers.
In the tutorial below you’ll learn five quick tips for shooting epic winter photos, from one of our favorite outdoor photographers. Everything you’ll learn is easy to accomplish and appropriate for photographers of all skills levels.
Romanian pro Toma Bonciu specializes in landscape, travel and adventure photography. He spends much of his time in the mountains where winter-like conditions prevail much of the year, so he knows of which he speaks. And he presents his helpful advice in barely four minutes.
In this behind-the-scenes episode you’ll follow Bonciu as he makes the most of the snowy conditions near where he lives. His first tip is important for those unfamiliar with shooting in the snow; namely, the importance of using EV compensation to overexpose by at least one stop.
This may seem counter intuitive to the uninitiated because snow is already really bright. But the meter in your camera is calibrated to give a “correct” exposure for “average” subjects—namely those with a value of middle gray. So without upping exposure, bright snow will appear dark and dingy.
He also preaches the necessity of always using a tripod—even on bright days—for reasons that he explains. His third tip has to do with editing, and he says, “Make sure when you post-process your images you choose the proper white balance.”
That’s because snow tends to have a bluish tint in the shade or on cloudy days, and it’s easy to compensate if you follow Bonciu’s advice. If you do this wrong, however, the beautiful white snow in your scene may appear blue, yellow, or even orange.
Bonciu’s remaining two tips are equally helpful in your pursuit of epic winter photographs, so take a look, dress warmly, grab your gear, and capture the splendor of winter. If it’s too dangerous to drive, you can practice in your yard or at a nearby park to get the hang of it.
If outdoor photography is your thing, be sure to visit Bonciu’s instructional YouTube channel where there’s much more to learn. And check out the tutorial we posted from another pro, who says, “don’t use f/16 for landscape photos.”
Let’s say you’re photographing landscapes on a foggy day, expecting to capture images full of drama. Instead what you get are boring, disappointing photos. Rather than dumping these uninteresting shots to the trash, why not transform them into something special with the simple edit below?
This episode from The Phlog Photography YouTube channel is faster and easier than most of the editing tutorials they post, and it delivers a unique “dark silver” effect. In barely eight minutes you’ll learn a super-simple color grading technique that you’ll use over and over again.
Instructor Christian Mohrle walks you through the step-by-step process for accentuating the atmospheric conditions in scenes with light fog to achieve images with a sense of serenity and calm. You can download the sample image in the link beneath the video and make the change yourself as Mohrle explains the process.
Mohrle always likes to make a few basic adjustments before diving into the topic at hand, so he has the best possible file from which to start. Here he begins by changing the profile to Adobe Standard, which immediate lessons the contrast of his foggy scene. He also brings down the color temperature, because in this instance the goal isn’t natural tones. After a few other tweaks it’s time for a bit of masking.
As you’ll see, he uses a radial gradient to add some glow emanating from the top of the frame. He further enhances the effect by increasing blacks and carefully dropping Dehaze. He explains why it’s important to be very subtle with the Dehaze slider to avoid overexposure.
The next step is adding a linear gradient over the foreground to “make it look a little creepier” because the original is too bright for what Mohrle envisions. He then drops the white tones to darken that portion of the image without the risk of underexposure.
All that’s left to create the look Mohrle is after is a bit of easy color grading and a subtle boost in sharpness. Now you have an image that truly evokes the drama of a foggy day.
There’s much more to learn on Mohrle’s instructional YouTube channel, so be sure to visit often.
We also suggest you check out a tutorial we posted from another image-editing expert recently, explaining a simple way to edit sunset photos for maximum impact.
