First Winter Snow
First Winter Snow
The first winter snow seemed to sneak up on us. I had checked the weather app on the morning of December ninth, and it called for zero precipitation. Within four hours the first flakes started falling, and by six pm we had a few inches on the ground. With the Nor Easter still dropping wind-blown snow, I headed out to capture a few images with my Nikon D850 and the 24-70E lens.
Working your camera in the darkness with windblown snow is challenging. The first concern is to protect the camera lens from getting hit with snow, and that is where using your lens hood in combination with a suitable cover like the RainCoat from LensCoat comes in handy. The next important step is to get a focus point and lock-it. It usually is best practice to have your closest subject in focus. Then when shooting in darkness, it is best to set the camera to manual mode to select your speed|aperture|ISO settings.
Simple Camera Settings
What is your story for your image? Knowing this will assist what your settings will be. I wanted blurry snow streaks to try and indicate a late night snow storm. This story requires a relatively short shutter speed of 4 to 6 seconds, then the rest of the settings fall in line to support a proper exposure. In my case ISO 10000 @ F/10. I used f/10 to get a glimpse of a starburst of the house lights as well as to keep near to far focus.
Lighting for your Image
Nighttime images without an external light require long exposure times. With long exposure, the snow streaks would not be captured. Since my story was not looking to freeze action the snowflakes, I choose to use my led headlamp to light the subject, the dock, and the secondary subject the blowing snow. Once you have a plan, then start making images by composing, clicking and double checking your captured content. I found that I needed to make images on both sides of the camera lens with my headlight to get the quantity of streaks I wanted.
Nothing is ever Easy in Post Production
I was hoping to import and select a few images and publish. That was not the case. The original images were like lumber that needed crafting to make the story come true. I was surprised at the number of competing color casts from the white dock to the skyline city light pollution to the near distance light streaks which needed to be corrected. Next the tonality (i.e., shadows and highlight) of the water to the sky to dock required attention. I was also left to ponder how to fix the shadow on the dock posts. Finally, I had to combine three images to select the elements to show.
How to gather your Thoughts to Tell Your Story | Image Maps
Perhaps one of the best training aids for creating your images is a technique known as Image Maps. I will be forever grateful to my friend, mentor and Nikon Ambassador Vincent Versace who trained the concept in his books, CD, and workshops almost eight years ago. The process is parallels the Dodge and Burn maps from the days of film.
PhotoShop Blend Modes
An often overlooked tool in PS is using blend modes. The most significant issue with creating my story was removing shadow casts from the dock posts. By using the lighted blend mode, I was able to diminish the shadows easily without masking. The lighten blend mode will increase by a stop pixels at middle grey. Since the post shadows on my images were at a middle grey, this blending mode pushed those greys to white. Problem solved.
Final Thoughts
I find working on images in post-production on mid tones and greys extremely challenging. The lack of blues, greens, red, and high contrast means that your story is in the land of the dark zones 1-3. In my opinion, it is tough to master. Also, it not ascetically pleasing for most viewers particularly those who venture primarily in the visual eye-candy world of Instagram and Facebook. It seems to me a fragile world wrought with failure at every turn. These tones are just at the edge of B&W and just outside of color.
