Shooting snow

mikebeecham

mikebeecham

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HI guys...

We have a snow flurry here, and I wanted to try and capture some of those lovely flakes in mid-fall. I'm using a Canon 600d with a 55-250mm kit lens.

I'm assuming that I would need to give it a really slow shutter speed, but having set it one setting before 'bulb' the screen is really too white to see anything, even with my aperture closed right down to 5.6 (the lowest it will go). I have ISO set to 100, but the view is still almost white.

What am I doing wrong here? Can anyone help?

Thanks
 
I am sure your lens will close down way more than f/5.6, so there must be something not right there. Also, if you use a slow shutter speed, you will only record blurs as the snow flakes streak across the view whilst the shutter is open.
 
f5.6 is when zoomed to 300mm. It is f4.0 when at 55mm...
 
When shooting in snow you will have to compensate for the white of snow when setting your exposure up as snow will fool the metering n the camera
 
mikebeecham said:
HI guys...

We have a snow flurry here, and I wanted to try and capture some of those lovely flakes in mid-fall. I'm using a Canon 600d with a 55-250mm kit lens.

I'm assuming that I would need to give it a really slow shutter speed, but having set it one setting before 'bulb' the screen is really too white to see anything, even with my aperture closed right down to 5.6 (the lowest it will go). I have ISO set to 100, but the view is still almost white.

What am I doing wrong here? Can anyone help?

Thanks
Click to expand...

The smaller the number the wider the aperture remember. You are likely overexposing your shots.

Try a blast of flash too, to illuminate the flakes, that can sometimes give a nice look.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. As you can tell I'm still getting to grips with it all, and probably had everything round the wrong way.

Will try again on the next snow flurry.
 
mikebeecham said:
HI guys...



I'm assuming that I would need to give it a really slow shutter speed, but having set it one setting before 'bulb' the screen is really too white to see anything, even with my aperture closed right down to 5.6 (the lowest it will go). I have ISO set to 100, but the view is still almost white.

What am I doing wrong here? Can anyone help?

Thanks
Click to expand...

One setting before bulb is probably 30 seconds! You'll need around 1/15th or so to get the effect you're probably referring to. Soft, with movement, but still discernibly a snowflake, yes? Around 1/15th or so.
 
Is this what youre looking to capture

garden.jpg
 
Gary Coyle said:
Is this what youre looking to capture
Click to expand...

Hi Gary, that's exactly the look I was going for. I was shooting during the day tho. Good shot
 
When you look out of the window at the snow it's clearest when it's illuminated by a light, such as a street light, this might be the type of area to focus on.
 
Just ensure you're shutter speed is less that 1/50th or so and you'll get an effect like the one you're after. I wouldn't use flash though, as the flash will freeze the snowflakes, and you'll get sharp flakes with "tail" streaking away from them.
 
...and if you use flash, any big flakes close to the lens can look like huge snowballs. This said, I've never tried shooting in snow with a remote flash. Could get an interesting effect.

Hmm...
 
Thanks guys...here in Dorset is all pretty academic now, as the snow has all gone. Unless we have a freak flurry at some stage it might have to wait until next year! Booooo!
 
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