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The winter months provide some fascinating photography opportunities, whether you have snowy landscapes and icicles to work with or the moody setting of low lighting. If you want to capture some great photos in winter, enroll in one of our photography courses for teenagers, get wrapped up and head into nature with your camera, as you’ll discover exciting winter scenes around every corner.
Maybe you got a new camera for Christmas and you’re eager to try it out or you want to add some new genres to your photography portfolio. It is the perfect time of year to use the unique winter atmosphere and light contrasts to get some amazing photos. You might want to try our photography courses for teenagers but this blog will also give you some tips for using winter light and wintery scenes to great effect.
Digital Photography for Teens: Capturing the Magic of the Winter Season
Here are some ideas to help you to master dreamy winter digital photography for teens:
Take Advantage of Sunny Days
You won’t get too many sunny days during the winter months unless you’re in a warmer climate, so make sure that you are ready to get snapping as soon as you have the opportunity of a sunny, bright day. Keep an eye on the weather forecast to plan your shoots around days that are expected to be sunny. During brighter seasons, the golden hour of the sunset is a good time to take photos but in winter you’ll probably get the best lighting at midday.
Gray Days Work Well Too
Don’t worry too much if sunny days are few and far between, because gray days can be ideal too. You can use black and white photography to produce stark contrasts on gray days and create moody photos. You can look for pops of color to provide contrast, such as street art, bright objects, buildings or clothing.
Camera Settings
When shooting in winter, increasing the exposure compensation will help to brighten the lighter elements of your photos. Also, experiment with the black and white or monochrome setting to get different results of the same subjects. You can also try changing the white balance to Cloudy or Shade mode. We cover more camera settings to use in our photography courses for teenagers. You can also find some great video tutorials of digital photography for teens on our YouTube channel.
Long Shadows
The position of the sun is lower in winter and this can help to create long shadows that make interesting photos. Try capturing shots of long shadows cast behind trees, buildings and objects. You will find that there are some good opportunities for shadows cast through windows as the light shines into a darkened room. Try putting objects near the window to see what interesting shadow shapes they produce. You can also take photos of people’s shadows, using the low light from the sun to project long shadows onto the ground or onto buildings.
Street/City Photography
Tall buildings, wet sidewalks and other cityscapes can provide the perfect scene for dramatic, winter photos. Foggy or misty mornings or low clouds above tall buildings can give a wonderful hazy effect. Taking shots of people walking in fog or silhouettes of buildings on cold mornings can create interesting pictures. In the dark evenings, you could try capturing city lights reflecting off wet sidewalks. Take a look at our Street Photography blog.
If you have a snowy day, you could head to a famous city landmark to catch beautiful snow fall images or on icy days, look for icicles hanging from bridges.
Nature and Wildlife Photography – Frost
A layer of frost gives you a fantastic opportunity to take breathtaking photos in nature. Try taking photos of a frosted spider web, frost-covered leaves and frosty textures on tree barks or other surfaces. Use a wide angle lens to capture stunning frosty landscape photos of fields and trees. Finding bright red berries will provide a color pop against a dark, moody background.
Frosty mornings are ideal for taking images of wildlife but it can take some patience! Look for areas where wildlife is active, such as nature parks, rivers or feeding stations. Setting up a position where you are hidden and staying still will help you to get closer photos of wildlife.
Most animals are more active in the mornings and the frosty backdrops will help to create unique wildlife shots. You might find it easier to take photos of birds as they settle on tree branches looking for food in the morning. Taking photos from the eye level of the animal creates a more intimate perspective.
Check out our photography courses for teenagers if you want to learn more about taking fantastic wildlife and nature photos. We have a range of fun digital photography courses for teenagers including beginner, intermediate and smartphone based courses.
Winter Sunsets
Winter time gives you a very different type of sunset scene, with crisp air and dramatic colors. Check the sunset time beforehand and find locations with trees or city skylines to catch the sun setting behind the subjects, creating silhouettes. Try to choose days where there is not much cloud, so you can benefit from the lighting of the sun as it sets.
Frosty Mornings – Textures
You’ll find some fascinating textures on frosty objects in the morning. Look for wooden surfaces like park benches and fences, or metal and stone, to find interesting frost patterns. Use macro mode to take close up photos of grass with a layer of frost in the morning light – frost on windows and glass can also create patterns resembling abstract art.
Snow and Ice
If you want to capture great snow and ice images, for the best results increase the exposure compensation to ensure the image is not too dull. You can also adjust the white balance to warm up the tones. Try to catch images of ice with light shining through which will give a beautiful glow.
Winter Photography Inspiration
There are lots of fantastic photographers with stunning winter photography portfolios, such as:
Bruce Davidson – Davidson worked in New York’s iconic Central Park for four years and one of his most renowned images is “Poets walk through a snowstorm”.
Ansel Adams – The San Francisco born photographer Ansel Adams has a portfolio of stunning wintery scenes spanning several decades. Images include “Clearing Winter Storm” taken in Yosemite National Park and “Denali and Wonder Lake” in Alaska.
If you would like to learn how to take amazing wintery photos, our photography courses for teenagers will guide you through some effective techniques. We offer both online courses for digital photography for teens, as well as workshops for our expertly crafted courses.
