Tips For Shooting In The Snow

For those of you who love snow (me!) and really enjoy shooting great pictures in the snow, you might appreciate this small list of helpful tips for achieving proper exposure while shooting in the snow.

For starters, it's important to know a little bit about metering. As the amateur digital photography market continues to absolutely explode, more and more folks are buying awesome DSLR's with very spiffy TTL (Through-The-Lens) metering capabilities, but are totally unaware how to use them. Metering is key when working in the snow, especially if the sun is shining brightly. Most TTL meters register @ 18% gray, so your whites are typically going to be underexposed if you trust the meter. You are going to have to adjust your camera settings by a 1/3 of a stop, (so you are absolutely going to have to shoot in manual mode in order to perfect shooting in the snow.) Opening up the f/stop is going to allow that snow to be a brighter white, as it should be.

If at all possible I would suggest using a spot meter when trying to gain the proper balance between your highlights and shadows in such challenging "white out" conditions. I learned to "bracket" my exposures back when shooting film and I continue to do so while shooting digital. Find your reading and shoot one f/stop above and below the suggested exposure. (There's lot's more to say about metering in general, so we'll have to touch on that in a separate post later.)

Another useful tip is to pay attention to your light source(s) and where your subject is in relation to the key light and reflective light. Depending on your subject (dark, light, midtones), you'll probably have to blow out the snowy background to obtain proper exposure. Just be careful, because it's easy to underexpose your subject while shooting in the snow. The trick is to find that proper balance by adjusting shutter speed, ISO and f/stop. (This is another topic that we'll have to come back too, because "proper exposure" is such a subjective notion these days.)

One more thing to mention is your color temperature. If it's off, it's going to show up for sure while shooting white snow. Most digital shooters adjust their color temperature during the editing phase after they have already captured their images. This is very achievable if you are a RAW shooter. RAW files make these types of adjustments possible, especially if you are using the proper editing software. If you don't have RAW shooting capabilities, then pay attention to what your white balance setting is on in your camera. This is yet another beast to post about!

While some of you may have found this post totally boring, I hope it was helpful to those of you who are curious about the technical side of photography! Take the time to learn about your equipment and don't rely solely on "P" mode!

Until next time...happy shooting! (hopefully in the snow!) :)

The Food Photographer's Closet

As many of you already know, my "full-time" job is working as a commercial food photographer for a printing and advertising company. It's so much fun being able to play with food and cameras everyday...a few of my favorite things! I get a lot of questions about my food photography work. "What tricks do you use?" "Is that food real?"...etc. So, I thought I would start a conversation about food photography and what interesting challenges I face on a day to day basis working with the most hard-headed of subjects...FOOD! First, I thought it might be fun to glance into my tool box or better yet "The Food

Photographer's Closet"....

(Left Image: Keeping the "hero plate" of peaches chilled while I await changes/approvals from the client.)

(Above Image: As a food photographer, you can't have too

many choices, especially when it comes to sauces and dressings.

You never know when they will come in handy! This is only

one small shelf out of several!)

(Above Image: Lemon juice is one of my best friends in styling food...

a must when working with fresh fruits.)

(Above Image: Oh, my beloved brushes!!! Another must-have for adding things like glycerin to a product or moving an unwanted pepper speck out of the way before shooting.)

(Image on Right: Spices)

Spices are not so important for flavoring, because you're not going to eat your work of art, but it's always a good idea to have a nice collection of herbs & spices. You may need to use a certain herb or spice to get a desired coloring or texture for meat or even a sauce. (Also, I've found that a cool looking spice rack comes in really handy for using as a background prop in the image.)

If you dabble in food photography for any period of time, you will discover there are a lot of things that you cannot live without. One of those major things is my beloved propane torch. You can't style a piece of meat without it, plain and simple. I use it for browning and most importantly for "grill marks". I must admit, I used to be intimidated by this beast when I first started styling food, but now I can't imagine a week in the studio without it!

(Image on Left: Propane Torch)

This is just a tiny glimpse into a food photographer's "closet", so to speak. I have lots and lots of things I could share in this post, but I want to know more about what you keep in your food photographer's closet! If you are a food photographer or food stylist, please share your tips and tools with us! Even though I've been doing this for a while now, we can always learn new things from each other!

Until next time....Happy Shooting! :)

Shooting With Natural Light

Sorry...I know it's been a long time since I last posted! My shooting schedule has been crazy lately and today is the first day I've had in a while to sit down, breathe and get reorganized. To let in a bit of fresh air to the blog I thought focusing on natural light as a topic would be appropriate and somewhat refreshing.

I absolutely adore shooting in natural light...I always have. It represents what the good Lord has given us to work with without even thinking about plugging into an electrical outlet. It's amazing what simple, natural lighting can do to transform an image. No matter what the subject is, God-given sunshine can turn something ordinary into extraordinary.

If you're wondering how to go about shooting in natural light, here are a few tips:

1. If shooting indoors, try to

choose a window or doorway that gets soft, indirect light. In my studio I have a northeast-facing window that gets wonderful morning light. If you're stuck with harsh light coming through your windows, improvise by covering windows with soft white fabric or sheers to create a more diffused light.

2. Using a tripod is a must...especially when working indoors with natural light. If you want to create a wonderful soft light/shallow depth of field in your photos you will want to use a slower shutter speed and a wide aperture. You want to avoid camera shake, so use a tripod.

3. Natural light is wonderful for accentuating the textures of an object or even a person's facial features. Work on positioning your subject next to a window where the light skims across the surface you are focused on.

4. When shooting outdoors be sure to choose "open shade" spots, such as under a tree or the shady side of a building. You don't want to be in too dark of a spot, but you also don't want to have harsh sunlight causing your subject to squint or develop under eye shadows.

5. Carry along a small reflector to use indoors and outdoors when working with natural light. If you don't have a professional reflector, you can improvise by using a piece of white foam board from your local craft store.

With the snow finally melting away and Springtime right around the corner, the sunshine is beginning to make it's presence known a bit more often, so now is the perfect time to practice working with natural light!

Until next time...Happy Shooting!

Go to www.catseyephotography.net for more examples of Natural Lighting. E-mail questions to courtney@catseyephotography.net.