Shooting in Snow

[Ty Maier]

Doing a shoot in the snow for the first time. Upper NY about 50mi from Canada.

Any tips as far as exposure, practicality, or anything I should be aware of?

 

[Marc Wielage]

I seem to recall there's more potential for IR bounce from the show, so I'd be sure to use a filter to protect against it.

 

[Joachim Hoge]

Trust you histogram, not your eyes. Your eyes “stops” down in the bright environment and your monitor could seem dark to you.
It’s easier to use a viewfinder. When using a viewfinder I tend to use sunglasses when not looking trough the viewfinder and keeping my right eye shut until I’m looking trough the viewfinder when I remove them.
I almost never use a rain over when I’m shooting in the snow (even if it’s snowing a little). The Red cameras are really rugged and I’ve never had a problem during 5 years of winter shooting in really rough conditions.

Batteries doesn’t last as long. Try to keep the ones you are not using somewhere warm. At least don’t leave them outside exposed. Keep them in a bag or a pocket.

If it gets really cold, the LCD could start to be unresponsive as the crystals starts to freeze. Only happend a few times to me. It was -25C at the time. If you bring heat packs you can stick one on the back of the screen.

 

[Björn Benckert]

Trust you histogram, not your eyes. Your eyes “stops” down in the bright environment and your monitor could seem dark to you.
It’s easier to use a viewfinder. When using a viewfinder I tend to use sunglasses when not looking trough the viewfinder and keeping my right eye shut until I’m looking trough the viewfinder when I remove them.
I almost never use a rain over when I’m shooting in the snow (even if it’s snowing a little). The Red cameras are really rugged and I’ve never had a problem during 5 years of winter shooting in really rough conditions.

Batteries doesn’t last as long. Try to keep the ones you are not using somewhere warm. At least don’t leave them outside exposed. Keep them in a bag or a pocket.

If it gets really cold, the LCD could start to be unresponsive as the crystals starts to freeze. Only happend a few times to me. It was -25C at the time. If you bring heat packs you can stick one on the back of the screen.

Never trust you eye for exposure.

Go by the stoplights. 2 stops under those and you are good in the snow. Burning highlights is worse than hitting the noise floor when shooting in snow.

We did this cow thing in the alps last winter. It´s was such hard light up theatre we were on ND 22 and still had to stop down quite a bit. It´s nuts how much the snow reflect when being in a valley at high altitude. Screen are pitch black you can not even see if the camera is on or not. So yes then viewfinder is your friend.

This was helium pre IPP2 and some epic dragon and some Zenmuse x5 and a mix of Kowas and tokina.

 

[Mark K.]

In brightly lit snow, I'd certainly recommend rating the camera a stop higher to shift more latitude into your highlights (which form the bulk of your image in the snow).

 

[Peter Strietmann]

Check this thread...

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?164407-Re-warming-lenses

 

[Christopher S Johnson]

In such variable conditions I would suggest consulting multiple tools to be sure exposure is correct. I would use a light meter, and do some research on middle (18%) grey and understand how that relates to snow. Good luck!

 

[James Falco]

I find it shooting in snow saves on carrying bounce boards to a shoot. ; )
I personally use a rain cover on the camera even if it does not snow as it traps the heat generated by the camera and that keeps the battery and LCD screen going.
If it starts getting to hot under the cover I crack open a corner.

On that note some videos:
https://vimeo.com/137019066
shot in Catskill upstate NY on RED dragon

https://vimeo.com/210516127
shot on phantom

 

[Ty Maier]

Lots of great advice! Thank you guys!!

 

[steve green]

I realize it's frowned upon, but, this works great for keeping the temp in the green.....

I've had a couple of cold weather shoots this month. I just black shade indoors at room temp, when on the shoot in the cold (5-25F), I tape off the exhaust vents and put the fan in "quiet mode". That keeps the "T" in the green all day. Works great!

 

[Mike P.]

I seem to recall using yellowing filters (not warming filters) in order to tame the whites of the snow; when you white balance it back to proper white it makes the snow more monochromatic (instead of being mildly blueish) whilst keeping the rest of the image balanced correctly.

...you’d probably want to test that (and not sure it’s actually necessary any more what with Resolve/decent colour correction being so readily available).