Catching falling snow

[ndwgolf]

Today was my last day in Sapporo Japan, the wether was horrendous, blizzard like snowing.
Anyway I drove over 100 kilometres to try and get a photo of a well known picture spot on Lake Toyo, the snowing never let up all the way there and the forecast was not good for our drive back, so I decided to turn around and head back to the hotel, after driving 5 or 10 kilometres I said to myself, to hell with this I've driven this far lets go try and get a picture, so I turned around and started heading back to the photo spot. When we arrive there, there was a Japanese couple with a professional photographer doing a pre wedding shoot at the same location, I tried talking to him about shooting in heavy snow like this and he just smiled and kept walking, so I grabbed my gear and made my way through 2 feet of snow to get into a position to get the shot, the snowing was really heavy, I then started thinking slow or fast shutter speed, my camera was telling me at f8 ISO 50 I needed 1/60 including a 1 stop over compensation for the snow (not exact numbers but close to that), in the end I went with F2.5 ISO50 1/320. After seeing the results I think I should have bumped the ISO to get a shutter speed of over 1/1000........... What do you guys think?

 

[sirch]

I have found that one way to capture falling snow is to either be under cover or use an umbrella to keep clear air for at least few feet in front of the lens. Otherwise snow flakes close to the lens are very out of focus

 

[ndwgolf]

I have found that one way to capture falling snow is to either be under cover or use an umbrella to keep clear air for at least few feet in front of the lens. Otherwise snow flakes close to the lens are very out of focus

Unfortunately we didn't have an umbrella just a 2 inch lens hood but your recommendation makes absolute sense ................next time

 

[ancient_mariner]

You could also consider a small on-camera flash, to freeze () the falling snow closer to the camera, while allowing the more distant snow to create motion blur. It may be necessary to merge/stack images using different points of focus to get everything sharp.

 

[Garry Edwards]

You could also consider a small on-camera flash, to freeze () the falling snow closer to the camera, while allowing the more distant snow to create motion blur. It may be necessary to merge/stack images using different points of focus to get everything sharp.

I haven't tried this with falling snow, but it works well with torrential rain, it involves a bit of faffing around, but well worth trying, My least unsuccessful shots were in machine-gun mode with the flash power turned up high enough for the flash to not fire on the second shot, so that shots can be merged later.

I have found that one way to capture falling snow is to either be under cover or use an umbrella to keep clear air for at least few feet in front of the lens. Otherwise snow flakes close to the lens are very out of focus

Not always practicable, but shooting from inside a hatchback or estate car works well, using the car as a big umbrella.

 

[TimHughes]

I tend to go with umbrella over the camera, slowish shutter, and a little fill flash. flash needs to be second curtain or the flakes can look like they are moving up.

 

[Bristolian]

Whether you could have improved the shot, or not, the end result is beautiful. Well done Sir

 

[woof woof]

Whether you could have improved the shot, or not, the end result is beautiful. Well done Sir

Yes it is. Well done Neil!

All I have to add to the conversation is that the distance you want the flakes to be discernible at and the aperture to use need thinking about as well as shutter speed.