Taking great winter photographs while protecting your camera and equipment from the cold temperatures require some special techniques. Although we will be talking about snowboarding and downhill skiing in this article the same techniques can be applied to any winter sport, whether it be ice skating, snowmobile races, ice hockey, etc.
1. Protect your camera from the elements.
Cold weather is the natural enemy of all camera equipment, especially digital cameras. Cold weather effects the battery ability to produce electric current and causes them to discharge at a much faster rate. Batteries produce electricity through a chemical reaction that takes place between their electrodes and the electrolyte that they are immersed in. cold temperatures slow down the rate this chemical reaction significantly. Cold temperatures affect the LCD response time and in very cold temperatures may black out completely. Cold temperatures can effect the auto-focus circuitry too. Condensation can form inside the camera and damage the delicate circuitry too. Protect point and shoot cameras by keeping them inside your coat. Protect bulky pro DSLRs by carrying them in well-insulated camera bags.
2. Anticipating where the action will take place is of the utmost importance.
If you have read my article, The digital photographer: Take me out to the ball game, you will know that a good sports photographer knows how to anticipate where the award winning shot will happen. This is especially important when photographing down hill skiers and/or snowboarders are concerned.
If this is a planned shoot, good communications between skier and photographer is the key to getting the shot. Talk to the skier ahead of time to find out what track he or she is planning to take down the slope and then position yourself accordingly. Once you know the track the skier will take, you will need to ski down the same track to find the point where you want to shoot the pictures. Before you start your run, agree upon a signal with the skier so he or she knows when to start down the slope. You will need time to set up for the shot.
If you are shooting competition, then you will have to depend on your knowledge of the sport and the course to find the best position to shoot the action.
3. It’s all in the pre-focus.
To shoot the skiers as they pass a certain set of markers, pre-focus on that spot before the action starts and then lock your camera’s focus on that spot. If you are shooting head on you can shoot without pre-focusing and locking the focus but you need to be aware of a couple of things before you try shooting in auto-focus mode. First, most auto-focusing cameras focus on what’s in the center of the viewfinder so if your subject is off center the camera will focus on whatever is in the center of the viewfinder even if it’s another skier fifty feet behind your subject. The unwanted skier will be in perfect focus while your subject will be completely out of focus. Second, some point and shoot cameras don’t have instantaneous focusing, there’s a slight time delay between the time you push the shutter release and when the picture is taken. Watch out for this time delay because you will miss most of your shots.
4. Shutter priority and fast ISO sorting.
When shooting sports I prefer using the camera’s shutter priority mode, which allows me to select the shutter speed that I want to shoot at while the camera handles the lens f-stop or aperture for me. I usually shoot at an ISO of 1600 or 3200 so the camera stops the lens way down for the greatest depth of field.
5. Stopping the action.
If you are shooting a skier head on you can shoot at a relatively slow shutter speed and still stop the action dead but if you are shooting from the side or at an angle, you will need a fast shutter speed to stop the action. I shoot at 1/1000 sec but 1/500 sec will do the trick as well. I wouldn’t shoot at anything under 1/500 sec.
6. Showing motion.
Motion is shown by either having the subject motionless while the background is blurred or by having the background in perfect focus while subject is blurred. To keep the subject in perfect focus while blurring the background you need to shoot at a slow shutter speed, say 1/30 sec, while panning the camera to keep the skier in clear focus. To keep the background in perfect focus while blurring the subject, shoot at the same low shutter speed while holding the camera motionless. Panning a camera smoothly takes practice, plenty of practice, so practice this technique as often as you can.
7. Tricky exposure.
Getting the proper exposure when shooting on bright sunny days can get tricky when shooting on the slopes. In many cases I will switch to full manual mode and do everything myself-aperture, shutter, and ISO. I’ll use the internal meter in center-weighted mode to take a reading off a Grey card and then set my shutter an aperture accordingly. For those of you who aren’t comfortable taking complete control of your camera, bracket your exposures. Most cameras will allow you to program in a couple of exposure values above and below the center value. Bracket your exposures and then pick the best exposure to work with during postproduction.
8. Filters
Neutral density, UV filter and circular Polarizer filters are an absolute necessity when shooting this sport. The Polarizer allows you to tune out unwanted reflection and glare. A pale magenta filter like an 81A or a darker magenta filter like an 85C is also useful.
