Winter Photography: A Complete Guide

Keeping active with your camera during the cold, short days of winter

Winter: it's cold, wet, the days are short, everything looks dead, and anyone sensible is in hiding. Why bother to get the camera out? For all of the above reasons, it’s tempting for photographers to put the camera away at this time of year and hibernate until the spring.

Yet, it would be quite a mistake to do so because – when the weather is right – winter can be the time to generate some of the most beautiful and most dramatic photography possible. The low sun, the presence of over-wintering migratory wildlife, plus the frequent frosts, mists, snows and storms, all combine to create some fantastic photographic opportunities that just don't exist at other times of the year. So, yes – it's cold and often wet, but you just need to wrap up, wear the right gear, and get out there.

This article will equip you with winter photography ideas to inspire you to get outside and keep shooting through these cold, short days.

Lighting up the land and sea

Admittedly, the sun doesn’t shine a lot during the winter, but the light can be magnificent when it does. Not only that but both dawn/sunrise and sunset/dusk are at highly civilised times (actually, sunset is perhaps a bit too early), making it generally unnecessary to get out of bed early or stay out too late.

Moreover, even when the sun isn’t shining, the frequent storms that sweep in from the Atlantic provide some very wild, dramatic weather for landscape photography, both on the coast and inland. This is particularly so just after the main storm front has passed through – a time when the clouds usually break, providing some great, though rapidly changing, light, along with a succession of rainbows.

So, for landscape photography during winter – think, on the one hand, of calm, clear days lit up with a perpetually low, golden sunlight always low enough for atmospheric landscape photography; the landscape itself 'decorated' with beautiful skeletal trees, fantastically calm, clear, reflective water, and stunning silhouettes, sunrises and sunsets.

On the other hand, there are the windswept days of leaning trees, dramatic, stormy skies with ragged clouds, surf pounding onto rocks and beaches. Indeed, these are not necessarily easily photographed on days when the sky is simply a continuous sheet of dark grey, but when it breaks to allow through shafts of light, the prepared and nimble photographer can grab some stunningly atmospheric imagery.

The veil of fog

Autumn and winter are, of course, the main times of the year for fog, most especially during the early morning, but also often throughout the day and in the evening. From a photography perspective, fog can be a curse and a hugely creative blessing. You may not be able to shoot any distant views, so when the veil of fog descends, adapt your style and subject matter to fit the ‘new reality’.

Think close details, the ethereal outlines of shapes picked out by the grey-white background sheet, with all the confusing and cluttering background details erased. Such subjects will often be in silhouette, especially if there’s still some sunlight penetrating the fog, so this is the time for fantastic outlines: skeletal trees, for example, much of it reduced to a simple, monochromatic composition.

Of course, there are also various types of fog depending on weather conditions, altitude and moisture. From a photographic perspective, one of the most beautiful fog types is ground mist, which forms during the night in cold, still, clear conditions – usually over very wet ground. The result is often rather patchy swathes of mist that extend just a few feet above the ground. The photographer who can get in the right position, outside the fog and see above it, will be treated to some wonderfully ethereal views. This will be particularly so if shooting into the early morning/sunrise light, during which the mist will be lit up as a bright white, translucent blanket, with its enveloped vegetation picked out in silhouettes.

Denser, lower level fog, though with a higher ceiling, can come about due to a temperature inversion, with warm, moist air trapped below a heavy blanket of cold air. If you're down at ground level, all you will see is thick fog, but if you can climb to a hilltop, you'll be treated to a magnificent view of a sea of clouds below, with the hills protruding above. While this is often more commonly associated with mountain landscapes, it can still happen in the gentle, hilly countryside, too, so one should always be ready for it.

Both of these types of low-lying fog are commonly found not just across wet ground but also over calm expanses of water, providing beautiful misty views - particularly early in the morning – across lakes and river estuaries.

Such fog is particularly effective for photography if the sky above is clear, allowing for some sunshine to penetrate, setting up sunbeams, making the fog veil a bright white and creating stunning silhouettes. Unless the weather is really cold, such fog and mist will generally burn off quickly once the sun gets going, so photography usually needs to be done quickly and in the first few minutes after dawn and/or sunrise.

Up in the hills and mountains – apart from the sea of cloud mentioned above – most fog is more a case of low cloud clamping down on the landscape and coming in whether there is wind or not. Such low clouds can also be truly atmospheric, of course, generating great silhouettes of trees, rocks and buildings. However, there’s less likely to be much less sunlight and instead a much greater risk of rain or snow.

Catching the frost

Few things in life are more entrancing than a landscape – or even just a detail of a landscape – bejewelled with crystals of frost glistening in the early morning sunlight, turning grey stone or wintery vegetation into a glistening white dream. Suddenly, something barely worth a second glance, let alone photography, becomes a stunningly beautiful photographic feature, whether seen in the full glory of sunshine or deep in the blue shadows of dawn.

Of course, if the weather is cold enough, frost can last all day, but most usually – especially in the south of England – it lasts just the few couple of hours of the morning, particularly if there is sunshine. So, to catch that frosty landscape, it's best to get out early while the frost is at its morning best before any sunlight has a chance to melt those jewels. Frosty images can be most effective when photographed very soon after dawn before any sun has reached the landscape. The blueness seen in the shadows is often enhanced by the frost, so the two work fantastically together to portray the sense of cold.

Snow and ice

No discussion of great winter photography would be complete without snow and ice. The latter can transform any normally watery scene, whether it be an entire lake, a puddle or just a dripping gutter. Convert that water to ice, and suddenly we have beautifully cracked and freezing patterns, pointed daggers of icicles, often quite blue when seen in low light levels, and rendered even more magical if frost and/or snow are also present.

Snow completely transforms an entire landscape, creating wholly monochromatic scenes when the sky is cloudy, and truly dynamic high contrast landscapes when under a blue sky. Wide vistas, closer landscape elements, or close-up details (such as snow or ice gripping vegetation) all make for stunning subjects in this kind of environment. Shortly before sunset (or shortly after sunrise), snow will usually reflect the sun’s pink glow, creating some wonderfully delicate colours.

Ideally, the best photography is done when snow is freshly fallen before there has been an opportunity for its perfection to be ruined by footprints, tyre tracks or partial melting. At this time, unless it’s windy, trees will probably be draped in snow, transforming their grey/black skeletons into a pristine sparkling whiteness. That said, getting out to photograph genuinely freshly fallen snow can be a challenge, partly because light levels may be rather poor until the sky starts to clear and partly due to the state of the roads.

Capturing detail in snow can be challenging, as all the prominent white tends to become rather featureless and in danger of burning out, especially in sunlight. Fortunately, however, a camera's light meter will tend to underexpose the white, which helps enhance details of crystals, bubbles and ripples. On the other hand, too much underexposure can render the snow a little grey or blue, so it may be necessary to correct the exposure post-shoot. What's more, in bright sunlight, this underexposure can cause a blue sky to become very dark indeed, something that can appear surreal. If you feel it needs to be corrected, do so either in post-photography processing or consider using a neutral-density graduated filter (ND-grad) during the photography, with the filter's dark part over the snow, not the sky. This can help reduce the contrast range between dark blue sky and bright white snow.

Getting cosy with wildlife

There’s a tendency to think that wildlife photography is a non-starter in winter due to hibernation and general die-back. But, we shouldn't put too much emphasis on these species’, as there are plenty more that carry on regardless.

In fact, some animals become more watchable during these months, partly due to the lack of foliage and partly because their struggle to find food makes them rather less concerned about our presence. The obvious example here, of course, is garden birds, many of which can be very easily photographed during the winter months, particularly if you have a garden equipped with feeders.

Moreover, although some of our birds migrate away to warmer climes in the autumn, the populations of others are greatly boosted by inward migrations of flocks from the far north. Although this occurs with some woodland birds, it’s particularly so for waterfowl such as swans, ducks, geese and a host of wading birds that include curlews, avocets and godwits, to name just a few. Every winter, they swell the bird populations on our estuaries, lakes and marshes by hundreds of thousands, creating quite a photographic spectacle. However, good powerful telephoto lenses are usually a must.

However, winter wildlife photography is not just about birds. Various mammals also remain active during the winter, including all deer species, foxes, otters and pine martens, to name just a few. In winter, badgers and hedgehogs are not frequently seen, though the former do not hibernate.

Winter photography: putting it all together

With so many photographic opportunities available during the winter months, there’s no excuse for not keeping on shooting throughout the season. Pick your subject matter(s) and get cracking!

Just keep an eye on the weather forecast, and prepare to head out whenever the right weather seems to be heading your way. Just wrap up warm and waterproof and enjoy the outdoors at a time of year when too few people get outside often enough.

Finally, however, just a word of caution. Not surprisingly, with storms, rain, frost, ice and snow all prevalent at this time of year, some care and preparation are needed. And not just simply to keep warm and dry. Plan carefully, drive carefully and don’t push yourself further than you feel comfortable in really bad weather. Think ahead of all the things that could go wrong and prepare accordingly.

For example, the top of a high cliff is no place to be at the height of an Atlantic storm. You would probably find it hard to do much photography anyway. It’s better to wait until the main storm front has passed, winds have eased slightly, and the light has improved. You’ll still get hugely impressive storm photos with a lot less risk to yourself.

If venturing out in the snow and/or ice, make sure you’re prepared: take food and drink, extra warm and dry layers, a shovel, sheets of a material that can be pushed under slipping tyres to give them grip, and even a tow rope, just in case.

And of course, as always, make sure someone else knows where you’re going and that you have a fully charged phone.

Once equipped and prepared, you’re well protected. Get out there and enjoy winter photography!

This blog was written by Nigel Hicks, a hugely experienced Devon-based professional photographer. Nigel works with the USA's prestigious National Geographic Image Collection, among many other bodies, and is a Fellow of the British Institute of Professional Photography.

Nigel runs regular photography workshops in southwest England. To find out more about these, go to https://www.nigelhicks.com/photography-workshops-courses/.

To find out more about Nigel's work in general, feel free to take a tour of his website at www.nigelhicks.com.

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