Photographing snow?

[photomomma]

I am brand new to photography (and the forum). I'm really just taking taking family snapshots and getting used to shooting in manual mode with my new D60.

Last night we got a really nice snow with huge beautiful flakes so I decided to trek outside and try to capture the moment. Out of about 30 pictures, 1 turned out ok. Does anyone have any tips for capturing falling snow so they don't turn out like blobs of over-exposed fairy dust? I think my biggest problem was figuring out what distance to focus on.

Thanks guys!

 

[hankejp]

What were the settings you used to try to capture the snow. I believe you would need to use a fairly high Shutter speed. Hopefully someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[photomomma]

Here is the Fairy Dust photo...

and settings:
F/6.3
shutter 1/60
ISO:400

I thought by setting my focal point to as close as possible, I would catch the close fakes, but blur out all the back ground....WRONG! lol

 

[Ptyler22]

You will probably have to manually focus on them, and not use flash, so you'll probably have the best luck doing them in the daytime.

 

[Big Mike]

Welcome to the forum

I'm not sure what sort of results you are hoping to get. :scratch:

 

[feRRari4756]

I think he is trying to get the flakes frozen in the air.

For that, you cannot use a flash. So turn off your flash, use manual focus, shoot in the daytime (you will need a high shuttter speed), turn your shutter speed to at least 1/200.

 

[Josh66]

I think my biggest problem was figuring out what distance to focus on.

I think no matter what distance you were focused at, there would have been snow there. The problem is that the flash is lighting up all of the snow that is not within the DoF (depth of field - what's in focus).

Since I live in Texas now, I can't really test this - but I think the best way to get what you want would be to wait till daytime and use the fastest shutter speed you can get away with. I think without a macro lens, you're not going to be able to see a whole lot though.

 

[Big Mike]

The problem with those theories is that if you wait until day time...the snow won't really show up unless you shoot against a dark background. It shows up well at night against the dark sky but it just doesn't stand out in the day.

 

[photomomma]

Thank you guys for all the advice. I have been reading as much as I can to learn but sometimes asking is faster! From what I have seen on the net, you guys are pretty knowledgeable and figured this was the best place to start.

I'll try again tomorrow just before dark so there is still some light left (yay more snow :er.