Younes Bounhar Photography

Winter Photography, part I

As winter rolls in, a good number of photographers pack their gear for a lengthy hibernation. Yet, winter offers countless photo opportunities that beg to be taken!

1- Can my gear handle the cold?

One of the questions that comes up most often is whether camera gear,  digital in particular, can withstand the harsh winter climate. I live in Canada, where the temperatures often hover below the -20C, and that has never stopped me from shooting! In fact, the cold has the very desirable effect of reducing sensor noise: since the sensor cannot accumulate as much heat as in warmer climates, noise becomes a mere afterthought.

That said,  there are a few things you should know before you head out in the cold.

2- Batteries do not last nearly as long in the cold.

The trick here is to keep spare batteries in an inner pocket of your coat. When your battery gives up on you, just slide it in your coat pocket for a little while, you will be able to “milk it” for a few more shots.

3- Freezing LCDs? No worries.

In extreme temperatures (and I mean EXTREME) your LCD display may stop responding, don’t worry about it, it is only temporary, once you get back inside it will come back to life in an instant.

4- Tripod care.

When shooting in deep snow, keep your tripod legs together. As you push your tripod deeper, the snow will push the legs apart and may cause them to break. All you need to do is, slightly spread the legs  before putting the tripod down, the snow will take care of opening it fully for you! – I am very much a fan of the least effort fraternity!

Tripods can also be quite the hassle in winter as they can suck all warmth out of your hands even with the biggest mitts on! A very simple trick is to wrap the top of the legs with pipe insulation foam. Believe me, your hands will thank you. For the hockey fans reading this, hockey tape is a fairly useless alternative .

5- Condensation is your enemy.

While this may sound dumb, be careful of your breathing: as you get close to your viewfinder, your breath will freeze around it and make it useless. By the same token, don’t try breathing on your lens or filters to clean them up .

However, the single most important issue to be wary of when shooting in the cold is condensation caused by temperature changes, specifically going from cold to warm. First, don’t try to “protect” your camera by putting it under your coat. All you will achieve is to risk damaging it due to water condensation. The issue is more problematic if you are in and out of your car often or when you get back home. If you shuffle in and out of the car during your shoots, either keep your car cold (it’s also more environmentally friendly), or keep the camera in the trunk. When heading back home, I usually put the camera in a sealed ziploc bag before I go inside and do not open the bag before at least 2h to give enough time to warm up. If I really want to work on my pictures faster, I will take the card out of the camera and put it in its own sealed bag in a coat pocket. Because it is smaller, the card will warm up faster.

This concludes the first part of my winter photography entry. In my next entry, I will provide some tips and tricks on how to get stunning winter photos. If you are interested in more hands-on training, consult the workshop page for workshop and course schedules.

Posted on December 20th, 2008 in News Photography Tips

11 Responses to “Winter Photography, part I”

1. Germen Koster says:

   December 23, 2008 at 6:16 pm

   Nice text about winter photography. I like your type of writing, and am anxious to see your next article about this subject.
   Merry Christmas.

   Reply
2. Tesseract says:

   December 23, 2008 at 7:42 pm

   Another quick note, be careful of rapid temperature changes from cold location to a heated one. The change in temperature may be enough to cause cracking between plastic and metal components – I lost a tripod going from a winter night to a heated car.

   Reply
3. sang says:

   December 28, 2008 at 9:00 am

   Great little blurb Younes. I’m also a big fan of shooting in the winter. One of the biggest benefits is the lack of haze for landscapes! Also, lack of people, but I think that goes with the territory .

   A few more notes to add if you’re camping with your equipment:

   1. Don’t take your camera in your sleeping bag (or even in the tent!). When you wake up and all that heat and humidity escapes your sleeping bag, it’ll completely fog up your lenses and sensitive electronic guts.

   2. DO take your batteries with you to bed though.

   3. Check the temperature rating of your Compact Flash! Not all CF cards are created equal and they start to do funny things when they get cold.

   and finally:

   4. Don’t lick metal lenses. They stick.

   Reply
4. domainmaster says:

   January 4, 2009 at 11:11 pm

   hi…

   wonderful…

   Reply
5. steve says:

   November 22, 2009 at 8:11 am

   beautiful pics mate!

   Reply
6. Winter Tips - Digital Photography Forum says:

   December 14, 2009 at 12:00 pm

   [...] following links may be of some use to those that will venture out to capture some winter photo's Part 1 Part 2 [...]

   Reply
7. Tweets that mention Winter Photography, part I | Younes Bounhar Photography -- Topsy.com says:

   December 29, 2009 at 9:38 am

   [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Younes Bounhar, Justin Van Leeuwen. Justin Van Leeuwen said: Apparently this will be helpful: RT @younesbounhar: Some winter shooting tips for landscape #photog: part I http://bit.ly/74BVTt [...]

   Reply
8. Justin Van Leeuwen says:

   December 29, 2009 at 10:23 am

   Good tips a good side-tip on watching your breath on ballheads – since it could unwittingly make them slick enough to drop your camera.

   Also, a combination of cold and over tightening the screw on the tripod mount can quickly lead to a threaded mounting plate (like mine). So don’t over tighten people!

   I’ve also been a fan of those hand-warmer things, since you might be taking your bare hands in and out of your gloves or pockets to handle your dials and switches I think carrying a few of these (and a few extras for your friends) is certainly a good idea.

   Reply
9. Bret Edge says:

   December 29, 2009 at 11:58 am

   All are excellent tips, Younes. I made the mistake of blowing on a lens to clean it one time. That was all it took for me to realize it wasn’t a very bright move.

   I’ll second the suggestion for chemical hand warmer packets. They’re like magic in a bag, if you ask me. Keeps the digits nice and toasty for several hours.

   Reply
10. Arun says:

    December 29, 2009 at 4:00 pm

    Younes, great post and especially good to see it before I head out next month in the cold. Do you recommend any particular pair of gloves? The main criteria is that it should be able to withstand 10-20 F and also provide me with the grip and sensitivity to handle the tiny buttons and dials on my camera? Thanks in advance.

    Reply
11. Tips, News and Upcoming Workshops |Out of Focus| A blog by Younes Bounhar says:

    January 24, 2010 at 8:51 pm

    [...] for winter shooting. Check them out for a quick refresher on winter shooting: Click on the links to Part I and Part [...]

    Reply