How to use Winter as a Photographer – Christmas tutorial

 

The winter of recent years has not been a delightful period for photographers. The lack of snow takes away a lot of the beauty of this time of year, making it difficult to mark its presence in a photo. In addition, we have a narrow time window in which we can take advantage of natural light, which makes finding the right moment to shoot may prove to be a challenge.
It certainly does not mean that photography is an activity that we have to put on hold for the winter season. Solving the problem is an individual matter – limitations are a factor that can stimulate our creativity and lead us to new paths that we have not yet discovered. Unfortunately, unfavorable circumstances may also have an opposite effect, constituting the cause of a creative blockade – therefore, as part of today’s St.

Home studio

Winter weather is unlikely to encourage anyone to take outdoor sessions, so it naturally comes to mind using the studio. Of course, not everyone has access to an atelier for their own use, so you should consider creating a home photo studio. The studio can be a kind of mental barrier for someone who has not had the opportunity to work in it before. Making space for studio photography at home may turn out to be a great way to break through. Contrary to appearances, arranging an atelier is not a difficult task, we only need to remember what our studio is for – it is to be a space where we control the light and we have freedom in composing frames. We do not have to build cyclorama and mount rails for the ceiling suspension of lamps – we can start with e.g. remote triggering of reporting lamps. Using accessories available on the market, we are able to create very versatile work tools, easily able to replace studio lamps.

The sheer amount of space can also be a problem. Large studios allow for the implementation of fashion sessions, photographing cars and other larger objects, and bold experiments, giving the photographer full creative freedom. A smaller studio means more restrictions, but don’t be put off by that. There are many areas of photography that will not be so demanding for us and culinary photography is a great example here. When photographing food, we can freely compose each frame, having time to make mistakes and learn.

An interesting issue, which also offers many creative possibilities, is macro
photography. Not only does it give a lot of creative freedom when it comes to choosing a topic, but by reducing the scale in this way, we can also forget about many problems related to working in the studio. For example, the selection of the background becomes an incomparably easier task than, for example, for a portrait, because in the macro the subject of the photo usually fills the vast majority of the frame.

Outdoor

If working in the studio is not a good solution for us to overcome the winter weather, we can also look for a branch of photography that meets the conditions dictated by the season. Landscape photography will be a good example here. We do not need intensive natural lighting for it, it can even be undesirable, so ND filters are often used here. The times of sunrise and sunset, i.e. the most important moments in landscape photography, are also more favorable. Moreover, planning a trip that landscape photography is often associated with can have additional advantages during the winter. We can not only avoid the crowds accompanying the holiday season, but also look at some landscapes from a more unique perspective. It is possible

If the subject of landscape photography has already been touched upon, it is also worth mentioning astro photography. It’s not an easy field to learn, but luckily, winter offers plenty of time to observe the sky. In densely populated areas there is greater air pollution, but on the occasion of trips to mountain regions, we have an excellent opportunity to capture spectacular frames.

Self-improvement

In the past, due to technical limitations, photographers were even more dependent on weather conditions. According to some sources, one of the Magnum photographers, Josef Koudelka, used a working mode that was very dependent on the seasons. In the summer months, he focused on photographing and exposing as many pictures as possible, while in the winter months he worked in the darkroom. The process of making prints was the equivalent of modern photo editing, but required a much greater commitment. When analyzing Koudelka’s way of working, we can see that he devoted a lot of time to perfecting his workshop. Certainly, taking him as an example in this matter, we can be sure that our photographic skills will not suffer, and we will spend the winter productively.

If we want to get more from the masters, it is worth visiting The Art of Photography channel
, where we can find a whole series devoted to the approximation of the profiles of outstanding figures. There is also a lot of information on technical and hardware issues, but the title of the channel remains relevant – it largely focuses on the artistic aspect of photography.

A significant part of the materials on the blog recently touches directly or indirectly on analog photography, so in this segment we will also recommend something for those interested in this topic. Here the recommendation will be for the EduardoPavezGoye channel, a photographer from Chille, testing a variety of analog cameras, from the simplest and quite amateur to quite serious, even large-format.

Let’s not forget about internet events as well. A good example is the series of meetings – We Are All Photographers. The meetings have been conducted since spring 2014 and, as the organizers themselves inform us about the series, it was conceived as a friendly guide to the world of contemporary photographic image, developed by artists, curators, journalists, culture animators and art historians.