For the northern hemisphere (sorry, Australia!), it’s winter right now. That means lots of snow for some of us, a little bit of snow for more of us and sadly, none for a few of us. Every year at this time, though, one of the most popular subjects for photographers becomes the snow itself. Either it’s snow covering a landscape or some local landmark, or for those of us with a macro lens, it’s the snowflakes themselves.
Whatever situation we find ourselves in, though, whether the snow’s in our backyard or we have to travel a little bit to get to it, snow can be a very enticing subject to shoot with a macro lens. And in this video, photographer Micael Widell offers us his five top tips for shooting snowflake macro photography, including a couple you might not have even considered.
Micael walks us through his mindset and his process for shooting snowflakes, starting from the bare basics of picking the best type of snow (yes, really) to go out and photograph through to actually shooting the image. Most of it the work when it comes to macro snow photography is actually in the preparation to ensure that your shoot goes as smoothly as possible once you’ve actually found the flakes you wish to photograph.
- 0:18 – The Best Snow
- 1:04 – Picking a backdrop
- 1:45 – Dress properly
- 2:34 – Gear and settings
- 4:02 – Technique
I have to admit, I’ve never really thought about finding “the right kind of snow”, but all those excuses from various British rail services over the years about cancelled trains due to the tracks being covered in “the wrong kind of snow” are starting to sound a little more legitimate. Just a little, though.
Dressing properly for shooting out in the snow is definitely a major point to think about when venturing outside with your camera. We’ve had a bit of snow here in Scotland over Christmas and New Year, with a whole week of it never going higher than 0° outside, and when you head outdoors to shoot, you can get very cold very quickly when wearing the wrong type of clothes. Also, bring gloves!
I hadn’t actually thought about doing macro shots of the snow over the last few weeks but I think if we happen to get lucky around here during the next few weeks of winter, I think I might have to give it a go!
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