I like to be creative and playing around with photography and lately I’ve experienced a lot of happiness out of creating festive and Christmas themes on my Instagram page. After spending the last few days playing outside in the chilly weather and creating a lot of exciting winter content, I thought why not put it into a winter photography guide for you?
I take all of my pictures with the Nikon D3400. It’s an amazing camera for all those beginners like me that’s much lighter and aesier to carry and more portable than other huge DSLR’s which makes it great for travel. I’ve been using it for years now!
Clicking live snowfall on camera can be pretty difficult, especially with the risk of your camera or other photography equipment getting wet and getting caught by fungus if it’s snowing very hard. I like to edit falling snow into my photos using the lens distortion app sometimes.
CAPTURE THE FOGGY MORNING
Have you ever thought of getting up in the early morning to click some kickass foggy pictures. Let me tell you, it is indeed one of the best feeling, waking up in such a rush for the excitement of clicking the foggy sunrises. When the sunlight passes through the thick fog and forms segments, it gives a very heavenly look and such a dreamy ambience that you can get the vibes freshly straight out of the photographs.
CAPTURE THE CITY LIGHTS
Now comes the city light affair, winter night life hits different, the empty roads, bridges, subways and etc. it might sound creepy, but trust me, these parts of the cities has got their own aura that can’t be achieved during the day light, no matter how fake you want to make it look like or even if you think, that in post production you will manage it, no! You can’t. It won’t reflect that exact same vibe.
Another thing when you are clicking at night, like obviously to capture the beauty of the night life in winters, you should click pictures while keeping your ISO high. Or, else you can get a lot of unwanted grains that might ruin your beautiful pictures. Also, if you are capturing moments from the chilly winter nights then you should try with the lightings as well. As the Christmas vibes will be all around, and streets will be fully accessorized with different colorful lights, so you absolutely should not forget to play with your shots while you are on streets.
CAPTURE THE SNOW FALL
What’s better than capturing running snow in winters? I mean that’s the signature of winters right? You can make your models stand in the snow filled pathways and do your magic. Capturing live scenes of snowfall has it’s own essence and I love it. what is just winter without snow – A waste of essence? Including the shredding of snow flakes in your compositions can be a great way to enhance your winter shots.
Also just as a pro tip, To capture gently blurred streaks of snowflakes, use a stand or tripod and a long exposure to slow the snowflakes down. If you’re hoping to freeze the action, use a fast shutter speed. Winter landscapes are truly breathtaking. The snow and frost instantly transforms a setting into something that’s completely otherworldly – and can make almost any setting look beautiful. Also you can consider adding a white vignette to your snowy images during post-processing – to accentuate the white, snowy setting.
SHOOT WITH BLANKETS
It is very crucial to keep the balance of the warmth in your bodies and the coldness in your presets for your picture editing! Home planned shoots are the best in this winter if you are a sloth bear and get cold very easily. There is none fixed rule that you only have to have a cool toned pictures for winters to match up with vibe of the weather, it’s more like you can still make people feel warm through your warm tones edited into your pictures.
The main moto is keep yourself happy right? Then stay at home and enjoy the warmth inside your blankets. But on the the other side, you want some interesting photos too, right? Here’s the thing, you can easily do some indoor portraits with candle lights or fairy lights lit in your room and set your camera with the portrait settings, always try to have a balanced proportion of backlight in yhour pictures for it to be not to harsh, but a little bit silhouette too. How cool it will be no? I know. Trust me, try it. You won’t regret doing it.
MAINTAIN A WINTER AESTHETIC
The winter aesthetics I was talking about in the above points, whether it’s the color palette, or your outfits, or the location at your home or some outdoor location, there are always some cute aesthetics that people like to have during this weather.
Like comfy clothes, warm blankets, socks, gloves, woolen outfits, couple scarfs and caps for twinning, and etc. You will generally find a lot of couple portraits in this criteria because people love getting clicked with their better half in this cozy weather. It’s all the cozy vibes and warm hugs that make you want to stay like that and create memories in the form of photographs.
CAPTURE THE MAGIC OF BOKEH
It’s a lot similar to what I had said in the night life part, but bokeh effects actually look good on pictures that are especially clicked in low light. And it doesn’t matter if you are clicking pictures outside or in your cozy habitat. Bokeh is something you can click first hand or you can add or edit them later on your pictures as well. It gives a great festive mood. Any picture with a bokeh effect on it just makes it look even more glamorous and a very happy to go picture.