It’s not very often that we get snow here in Texas, but as soon as we saw it coming down we threw on our heavy clothes and headed outside. Our little man still wasn’t quite sure what snow was, and it was an experience for him that I definitely wanted to capture. Sometimes it’s hard to find the balance between capturing the moment or putting the camera down and just sharing in the fun, but his elation over the snow was just too wonderful not to have lasting tangible memories of it.
To keep the snow off my gear, I balanced an umbrella on my shoulder while I shot. Did I look ridiculous? Yes. Did the neighbors probably get a good laugh at my front yard antics? Most likely. And, should I have remembered to have my wife take a picture of me taking pictures of my son so that you could all see my crazy setup? Absolutely! Oh well, next time, next time…. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to keep the snow off of your camera.
It wasn’t snowing very hard, but shooting at 200mm allowed me create the illusion that it was. This is because there was more distance between my lens and my subject, which means more snowflakes in my line of sight.
As I was snapping photos of him playing, I wanted to ensure the snowflakes didn’t contain any motion blur. I always shoot in manual, and I typically set my aperture first. In this shot, once I set the aperture to f/2.0, I set my shutter speed to 1/1000s to avoid motion blur from his hands and feet. This also allowed me to effectively freeze the snowflakes in place. Then, I raised my ISO to 500 to achieve the correct in-camera exposure. I’ve listed my gear and settings below:
Camera: Canon 5D Mark III Lens: Canon 200mm f/2.0 Focal Length: 200mm Aperture: f/2.0 Shutter: 1/1000s ISO: 500This image was edited with actions from the Innocence Collection: Emotional Color Base then added Paddington @ 40% opacity (added rich contrast and turned the greens from warm to cool) and Polar Express @ 20% opacity (enhanced the temperature and added a clean fresh tone).
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Awesome job Josh!
Did you use a 200 prime lens or…? My 70-200 can only open to f2.8
This was my 200 prime, but the 70-200 can achieve the same effect.
Hi Joshua, we got some of that snow in Tyler, TX too, its so nice to get a little. Thank you for explaining how you did your camera settings, I’m still struggling with manual, but after reading how and why you did it, a light come on in my brain, looking forward to warmer weather, ready to get out and start shooting again. Look forward to them and i would enjoy hearing how you come up and why, it really would help me to take better photos.
come to Tylers Azalea trails, think its mid March, beautiful antebellum homes and gardens, /Ms Lees gardens should be ready soon, hundreds of daffodils and an old log home, Its near Gladewater, off 20 heading east
Beautiful photo of your son, you did an amazing job, I live in Upper Penn. in Mich. we have so much snow and ice here, snow and ice a fun photos to take. I use an umbrella when it is snow or raining. It is snowing right now. I am also enjoying your action, I bought your sets about 6 months ago and I am loving them. Thanks for all you do to help out photographers. Cory
Great teachings, thank you. Your sin looks fantastic, great capture. No you don’t look silly!
I love love love this picture! I’m obsessed with the depth that it has. It’s very 3D. Just perfect. Were you able to get that with your aperture in addition to your focal length? Or did one play a part more than the other? Thanks in advance and once again beautiful picture (your son is really cute too ;)).
Thank You Missy! It’s a combination of both. The aperture created the softness and the focal length created the separation.
I enjoy all of you work! I took my oldest son out in the snow and did sr pictures. Snow pictures are great. Cold, but lots of fun.
I did notice an added blur in the background. Did you mask out your son to do that?
Hi Susan. All the blur was actually done in-camera. If I had applied a background blur to this image, all of the snowflakes would have been blurred or disappeared.
just curious how there is no snow in front of his face or most of his body. I see a couple random flakes on his legs but that is it. Did you do a lot of cloning to get rid of them? Just thinking there are a lot of flakes everywhere else so they should be on him as well. I live in Maine so I photograph in the snow all the time and always have snow over the faces.
Hey! I did remove 3 distracting snowflakes from in front of his face, but I think the snow in front of his sweater and hat just blends in, and there are only a couple flakes in front of his pants. Aside from the few on his face, that’s just how it looked SOOC.
My neighbor once told me that one time she looked over and saw that a jacket was laying in the yard, and then when it moved, she realized it was me laying on the ground with my camera. You’re right; you just do what you gotta do. The photo of your son is beautiful and well worth whatever concoction was required.
i enjoy taking pictures of kids but since they are always moving i tend to get blurry pictures. is it better to use manual mode when taking pictures of kids so i can set my shutter to a faster speed? . beautiful picture and edit
Wow what a cute picture.