In the cold zone. How to take pictures in the winter?

Every season requires a photographer with different skills and different approach to shooting. And winter is the most demanding in this regard. In winter you should not only be able to look for subjects in the snowy stillness, but to prepare for the shoot so that you don’t freeze to death amidst snow drifts and your gear doesn’t get ruined. Sounds complicated? That’s right. But since even in the middle of the world winter lasts from November to April and sometimes even till June it means depriving yourself of filming for half a year and miss lots of interesting things. So let’s figure out how and what to shoot in the winter.

Proper clothing in winter shooting is the key to success. Being badly dressed means you’re always thinking not about photography, but about how to get back to the warmth as soon as possible

We’ll start by getting ourselves ready for the shoot. A photographer has to stand in one place for a long time, so it’s not hard to get cold waiting for sunrise or sunset. But if you’re properly dressed, you won’t even notice the frost.

For winter shoots I like to dress in layers.The bottom layer is a thermal underwear made of thick fleece. Next – a thin down jacket, a thick fleece and a down jacket or a windproof jacket with extra insulation. You can wear thermal underwear made of thick fleece, thick fleece pants, and on top of that bunerbord or ski pants with extra insulation, or a roomy fisherman pants, overalls, which are inexpensive and protect very reliably.

The most difficult thing is to choose the right shoes. My advice is to look for boots for higher temperatures. So, especially for winter time I took these Canadian boots by Baffin for -100C to be sure. The formula for choosing shoes is very simple. You take the lowest possible temperature on the route, double it, and look for shoes for this cold.

Make sure your head is protected. A thick, warm hat, preferably made of a windproof Windstopper or Windblock material should reliably protect you from the wind. If you plan to ride a snowmobile, you should wear a balaclava of the same material in addition to a hat.

Perhaps the hardest thing for any photographer is choosing gloves to protect your hands from the cold. I suggest taking a pair of thin, breathable gloves for when you need to effectively control the camera, and a pair of warm mittens to protect your hands between shots.

Protect yourself, now we need to take care of the camera. Let me tell you right away that she does not need any sweaters or fur coats. Contrary to the information in the manual, Nikon D850 SLR cameras work reliably even in fifty-degree temperatures. Tried it myself. So you can go out and shoot in that cold weather. The first thing you will notice in this cold is a slow response of the camera’s LCD screens. Especially the auxiliary screen and the information in the viewfinder will slow down. So be prepared that in extreme cold the focus point indication will be half a second slower than when you press the button.

If you take pictures in a snowstorm, try to protect the front lens lens from the snow. The best way to do this is with a hood. But if it does get on the lens, I recommend wiping the drops with disposable paper handkerchiefs, not with a microfiber – it just won’t absorb it.

There is no sense to keep your camera from cold and snow in this weather, it will freeze and turn into a snowdrift anyway

The most important thing to remember when taking pictures in winter is that it really damages your batteries’ capacity. Luckily DSLRs, with their high-capacity batteries, don’t suffer as much as mirrorless cameras which die like flies in freezing temperatures. For winter shoots I recommend having as many batteries as possible. I try to take at least three, but here the iron rule is that the more the better. All batteries other than the active one should be moved from the backpack into pouches as close to your body as possible so they don’t freeze. This way you can keep them working for a longer period of time.

After shooting, I recommend that you take your camera gear indoors, but never open your backpack. If you want to get a flash drive to rewrite your shots, do it outside. If you do decide to bring a cold camera into the room, it will quickly get condensate on it, and it won’t disappear until the camera is at room temperature.

But I recommend not just to take your tripod inside, but to put it by the stove or heater, and leave it unfolded. Snow in the tripod locks will melt in the warmth, and if this water doesn’t evaporate completely, then in freezing weather even a small amount of it will be enough to freeze the tripod locks and prevent the legs from unfolding.

And now let’s talk about what’s even worth photographing in the winter. So if you’re out shooting in the winter, keep a close eye on the weather. A sharp drop in temperature can mean clear skies and beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

Often winter sunrises and sunsets give spectacular colors

Rivers might be an interesting subject for you to photograph as well. Especially make sure you pay attention to the rivers with rivers with ice cover, even if it’s freezing. In especially cold weather such rivers can float spectacularly, and on the coastal trees can form a beautiful coat of frost.

Winter transforms many scenes. A heavy snowstorm can obscure the background and make the picture look minimalistic

But what if you’re unlucky with the light?? Even bad weather can and should be used for photography. So, a strong blizzard can create a tonal perspective effect, cut off everything superfluous, remove visual debris and emphasize, for example, lonely trees.

If you have a man in a red jacket in your team, he could be the best hero for your winter shots!

Be sure to try to take pictures during the blue hour, which is the time after sunset when the landscape in the frame acquires a blue hue. Such landscapes look especially spectacular with a lonely hut with a light burning in its window. The contrast of the general blue tone of the frame and the warm light from the window creates a cozy feeling.

Example of blue hour photography. Notice how the warm color of the window contrasts with the cold color of the landscape