Welcome to another instalment of “Great Subjects”! Today we’ll discuss how to photograph weather and make the most of snow, rain, fog, clouds, wind and even sun.
Outdoor photography is highly dependent on the weather, which can often be a little bit unpredictable. Depending on where you live you might be enjoying sunshine on the snowy streets, enduring a storm, sloshing through rain puddles, or basking in the heat of the desert.
Every great landscape photographer needs to know how to make the best of any type of weather. After all, photography is less about the subject itself, and more about the light it’s seen in.
In fact, bad weather can create some of the most beautiful lighting, imbuing your images with a unique sense of energy. Plus, if you’re out shooting while everyone else holes up inside, you’ll be photographing scenes that nobody else even sees, let alone captures.
Snow and Ice
The first thing to know about snow is that you’ll have to increase your exposure higher than what your camera’s light meter thinks is correct. The intense whiteness will invariably fool the light meter, which will try to compensate by underexposing the image, turning your snow a muddy grey. Use your exposure compensation to overexpose the picture by a stop or two. Shooting in RAW format will also allow you to adjust your tones in post-processing.
When snow blankets the world in white, you lose a lot of the contrast that makes a photo interesting. Try to seek out dark subjects and backgrounds that offer contrast to your snowy scene. Even a clear blue sky looks great against the white snow.
If you’re trying to emphasize the gentle loveliness of snowfall, use a longer lens with a wide aperture to create a shallow depth of field which makes your foreground and background appear velvety soft, as the fuzzy flakes drift around.
For starker images, the sharpness of a small aperture will emphasize the cold rigidity of the season, and a wide-angle lens will feel less intimate, having a more distant and objective eye. And remember that a slow shutter speed will blur the snow’s descent, while a fast one will freeze it mid-air (no pun intended).
Another technique to try in the snow is to photograph in the early morning and late afternoon, when the low-hanging sun is casting deep shadows over the texture of the landscape.
Ice is another alternative for cold climates. The patterns of icicles hanging in a row, bubbles in the ice on a pond, or small plants poking through the ice are all great subjects for conveying a cold feeling.
Rain
Where I’m from in the pacific northwest, rain is one of the main features of our weather systems. Most people say that the world looks completely different in the rain, but we say that it looks completely different in the sunshine. Either way you phrase it, rain and sun are like night and day – they each make us see a place differently, and bring out different aspects of it that you may not notice in other conditions.
Just take a look at the difference between these two images, made only a day apart in Glacier National Park in Montana:
With a good waterproof jacket, waterproof shoes, and a protective rain sleeve for your camera, try getting out and capturing the emotion that rain creates. Capture that dreary, grey, feeling!
If you really don’t want to be out in it, try shooting from a covered position – under patios and awnings, and inside cars and buildings make great vantage points. People are scarce in the rain, so you can take advantage of empty spaces that would otherwise be filled with crowds. Shoot towards a light to bring out the shine refracting through every falling drop. Just like with snow, the shutter speed you choose will either blur or freeze the water’s motion, and a large aperture will separate the rain from the rest of the picture.
If fortune smiles on you, the moment just after a rainfall is wonderful, imbued with rich colours, gorgeous reflections, and maybe even a rainbow if you’re really lucky. The drops lingering on flowers and leaves make great macro shot opportunities.
You may have noticed that after a rainfall colours are much more saturated. As the sun begins to shine on the drenched landscape its surface twinkles in the light. There can be a lot of glare at this time so use a polarizing filter to cut down on unwanted glare while at the same time enhancing the appearance of the clouds in the sky.
Clouds
If you don’t photograph the rain itself, don’t let those beautiful clouds pass you by!
Dark clouds are extremely dramatic, and at any moment they can part slightly and bathe the scene in heavenly beams of sunlight. Even if you don’t have a great landscape scene to photograph, you can always just photograph the clouds.
Remember to use a polarizing filter when you want to emphasize clouds.
Wind
When it’s windy outside, you’ll have to take into account the increased movement within your scene, and how that affects your shutter speed. Again, if you want to freeze the motion, you’ll have to use a fast shutter speed. Sometimes the very position of trees, people, and other movable subjects can imply movement quite clearly. The use of a slower shutter speed, though, actually helps to convey the movement taking place.
Be aware of your equipment in a wind storm. A good gust can knock a tripod right over, and even blow away some lighter-weight accessories. Goodbye lens cap! Always weigh your things down or keep them tucked away and protected.
Fog
The tiny floating water particles that make up fog scatter the sun’s light, creating a soft, hazy atmosphere with low contrast and no shadows. This will make the light level very low so you’ll need to use longer shutter speeds and/or wider apertures to get a good exposure. The refracting light can confuse the camera’s light meter, too, which will tend to underexpose in reaction. Just like photographing in the snow, you’ll need to compensate by turning your exposure up a stop or two.
Fog is wonderful for creating an ethereal or obscured effect, isolating foreground from background in a similar way as a shallow depth of field. Fog is great for emphasizing distance and space.
Wonderful compositions can also be made when beams of light shine through fog.
Sun
I feel a little guilty here enjoying the sunshine in the American Southwest while writing about bad weather conditions. But sunshine is weather too and I don’t want to exclude anyone who is also enjoying good weather at this time of year.
After what we’ve already talked about in this lesson, you might realize that making compelling images can be more difficult when there is not a cloud in the sky. What do you do then?
My favourite way to take advantage of sunny days in winter is to appreciate the short days by going out and photographing sunrise more often. It’s really a lot easier to photograph sunrise when it happens at 7:15am than when it happens at 4:30am! When the sky is perfectly clear, the most beautiful soft pastel colours fill the sky just before the sun rises above the horizon.
Another way to convey a bright sunny day is include the sun in the frame.
Remember if the sun is in your frame, it can harm your eyes to look in the viewfinder! This is a perfect time to use your LCD screen when creating your composition. Use a small aperture like f/22 to create the sunburst effect.
Understanding Light
I have an exercise for you that will help you with this lesson on photographing weather. It will have a lasting impact on your understanding of light, how weather affects light, and how light affects your scene. In fact, you can do this exercise for months if you want. You’ll keep learning from it the more you do it.
Here it is: you take the exact same photo over and over again under different lighting conditions. Don’t worry about whether the photo is the most fascinating scene or the best composition. You’re probably not going to share these with anybody. They are just for you to learn about light. Pick something that’s right outside your front door and make the same photo every day, at different times of day, when it rains, when it snows, when it’s sunny, when it’s grey, in the morning, and even at night.
After awhile, you’ll start to notice little differences, and those little differences will affect your understanding of light so much that it will impact every photograph you make.
So go out and make that photo – whatever the weather! Don’t wait for the weather conditions to be perfect, or even good, just go out right now and photograph something. Then photograph the same thing the next day and the next.
Emphasizing Mood
Now that you’ve come to appreciate the profound effect that weather has on the atmosphere of a place, and a photograph, I want you to think about using various camera techniques to emphasize that particular atmosphere or mood.
For example, if your location feels gentle and romantic, try to convey that feeling in your photograph. You can emphasize the romantic feeling by making your photo appear soft. Use a shallow depth of field, a slow shutter speed, or even reduce the clarity in post processing.
If you find winter cold, wet, and dreary, try for muted colours, and low contrast. You could even add a bit of motion blur to create the effect of people moving quickly to escape the weather.
For an icy crispness, use fast shutter speeds, high contrast, a cool white balance, and smaller apertures to increase sharpness.
Try to think of other creative ways to emphasize the mood you’re trying to convey – you could use props, particular types of subjects, or specific locations. Most importantly, make sure you are photographing at the right time of day to give your scene the perfect light to convey the mood.
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Thank you. Lovely tips Anne _)
You are most welcome Muji, glad you enjoyed them.
VERY HELPFUL GAIN ANN. THAN YOU JACKIE
Really enjoy your tutorials and snippets of advice, simple and straight to the point. If only I could implement advice I read or see in videos and get the results I want!
Thanks Andy. It just takes practice. Lots of practice! I sometimes find that I read something and intend on doing it, and then when I get out there I am so overwhelmed by the beauty of the place I forget all about what I intended to do! Feel free to send me questions if you like. There’s a contact link in the menu or you can ask in the blog comments.
Nicely done Anne… Great summary!
Thank you very much Sam!
Great article Anne, another tip for photgaphing snow is to shoot contre jour, into the kight siurce. The back lighting kn the snow brings out the texture. Shooting in the golden hour or even better in the purple hour just before it gets too dark to hand hold adds beautiful colours to the snow.
In rain, I love to catch the reflections jn the puddles.
Brian
Great ideas Brian, thanks for sharing them! Much appreciated.
I was passing through Montreal on my way to Vermont a couple years ago. I spent 4 to 5 hours shooting the city in the rain with a rain umbrella fixed to my tripod. Got some great shots and carried on my way to the border. Nice review of shooting tips for weather.
Thank you Carlton. Great idea fixing an umbrella to the tripod. I have actually never tried that! Next time I have the opportunity I’ll try to clamp an umbrella on. It always seems like when it rains, the rain comes sideways though! Thanks for your visit and comments.
These are some interesting and challenging tips, Anne. Anybody can take images when the weather is good. I like your “wet” image of Glacier NP with the people in their rain slickers on the dock.
Thank you very much Ulrich, much appreciated! It was incredible how much the weather changed in one day in Glacier NP. I’d love to visit it again.
Thank, madam. there is a expendable lesson………
You are welcome, glad you enjoyed it!
Great post.
Many thanks Claude.
Excellent tips and directions. Now I’ll have to go out, keeping my fingers crossed, and practice what I have just read.
Practice, practice, practice!! That’s the trick. Thanks for your visit and comments Peter.
Hi Anne,
Brains, guts and practice, practice, practice. If you had been a musician you would have played at Carnegie Hall. You are so good that you can simplify what is complex. Love your work and thank you.
What a kind thing to say!! Thank you so much Maurice, I really appreciate that 🙂
You do amazing work Anne. Thank you for all the wonderful tips.
Thanks Janna, I really appreciate your visit and comments!
Hi Anne
great tips,,, thank you for sharing,,love these photos..
Thanks Rose, much appreciated.
Great article – as always. You never cease to educate.
Thanks you Angela! I try my best 🙂
I forgot to add “thank you”.
🙂 You are most welcome!
Awesome tips Anne … Thank you I love living in the PNW an the rain doesn’t stop me I have a rain sleave for my Canon an will hit the trails for some pictures
Hi Spencer, You’re right, the rain isn’t really a big deal if you have some waterproof clothes and shoes, and either a rain sleeve or a shower cap for your camera. You can get some dramatic photos in the rain! Thanks for your visit and comments.
Informative post. Thank you, Anne. That photo of the pontoon: what is your technique for getting such amazing depth of field and sharpness throughout?
Hi Boswell, to get lots of depth of field, use a small aperture such as f/18 and focus about 1/3 of the way into the frame. To make sure everything is sharp, either use a tripod, or if you are handholding make sure you use a relatively fast shutter speed such as 1/125th of a second to reduce camera shake. I hope that helps! Thanks for your visit and comments.
These tips are very helpful. Thank you.
Are you offering any workshops in the Vancouver area when you get back to B.C.?
Hi Deborah, No, I don’t do any live workshops at all right now. I’m considering doing some on Vancouver Island in the future, but I don’t have any planned yet. It’s nice to know that people might be interested if I were to set some up though! Thanks for your visit and comments.
Thank you for these very useful weather tips. I shall enjoy putting them into practice.
You are most welcome Marie, I’m glad you found them helpful.
Hi Anne. Thanks for the great tips. I plan to use them and hopefully get some great shots as we are going on an Alaska cruise may 27-June 3. I know the weather there can be unpredictable so I am crossing my fingers for an awesome variation of photos.
Hi Peter, You’re going to love the Alaska cruise. Not that I’ve been on one, but I’ve seen a lot of the British Columbia coast and many of the cruise ships go right past the place we park the RV in summer on Vancouver Island. It’s stunning and you’ve picked a great time of year for it. Yes, weather can be unpredictable, but stormy weather makes for great photos! Have a fantastic time.
Hi Anne another superb set of advisory tips
Others try but get nowhere where as you go from strength to strength, with the free advise you give the answering of questions etc etc
As a photographer and I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that if an individual likes or follows other photographers then it’s seems to cause a huge influx of emails selling this that or the other which makes you kinda unique
Can’t wait for the next one, if you need a topic then how about long exposure night/darkness shooting?
Bryan E…
Hi Bryan, I’m very glad to hear that you are enjoying the tutorials! Thank you for that. Well from time to time I do have a new product announcement that I send out in my emails, but I try my best to provide as much information for free as I can. I always want to make sure my readers get the best value from me. Thank you also for the topic ideas!! Those are great ideas and I’m putting them on my list right now 🙂
Thank you Anne for these tips
You are most welcome Bren!
Thank you very much very interesting tips.
Thanks Marouane, I appreciate that.
The section on wet and dank weather was particularly interesting as I am a photographer in Cleveland, OH. The weather demands that one adapts to rain and whatever the wind does to Lake Erie. Always enjoy your posts and have revisited your tutorials frequently.
Thanks for being a mentor to many of us.
Bill
Thanks for your kind comments Bill! I live in a rainy part of the world too. Well, at least I’m only here in spring and summer now so I actually miss the majority of the rain. Glad you enjoyed the tutorial.
Thanks for the tips Anne. I love your photos, and with your help am starting to get sharper images. As you say, it takes practice.
Hi Laurel, glad to hear the tutorials are helpful! Thanks for letting me know.
Just awesome work! We to lived and traveled in an RV. Fun and expensive times!
Cheers,
John and Susan
Boquete, Panama
Hi John and Susan! Thanks for your comments 🙂 We love RVing and certainly have fun times. We find it much less expensive than when we had a house. Especially during the winters when we are in the USA. Everything is much less expensive than it is in Canada and free camping rocks!
Great info for someone like me, a beginner and living in tropical place. Thank you very much
You are most welcome Juriah!
really clear and helpful tips. thank you very much Anne.
You are most welcome Rebecca, glad you found them helpful 🙂