This article first appeared in Cheshire Life magazine November 2023.
How to take beautiful winter photographs
“Wow! That’s a great photograph, you must have a really good phone…” A seemingly innocuous comment and well-intentioned but consider this instead: “That’s a delicious cake, you must have a really good oven…”. I know this isn’t exactly a like for like comparison, but it always makes me smile and effectively makes the point that there is still some skill required.
Another mantra I use with people I teach is that “it’s not the camera that takes the picture, it's you.” This point was really brought home to me when I met an award-winning portrait photographer, whose work I had always admired and she confided that when won her first award, she was using her camera in the automatic setting and still gets totally confused by the techie stuff. Her prize-winning skills are her ability to spot amazing light and composition and, just as importantly, how she can put her subjects totally at ease, so that the final portraits are candid and genuine.
Learning the techie stuff does put you more in control of the end result, but rather than trying to master every setting on your phone or camera, make sure you’ve got the basics covered: your subject is in focus, the brightness level is as you would like it and the colours look true to life. These are the foundations, and you can build on these as your confidence and knowledge grows.
Very little technical skill was required for this winter photograph of a frosty scene at Dunham Massey. Simply hold up the phone, tap the screen to focus, adjust the brightness slightly with the slider (the sunshine symbol next to the focus square) and press the shutter. But is that really all there was to it? What caught my eye and caused me to stop and take the photograph? What decisions did I make and why?
It's more often than not the light that stops you in your tracks and makes you think, “Wow, look at that!” The low, wintry sunlight is beautiful, making the frost on the grasses sparkle. The stream leads the eye through the shot, drawing attention to the clumps of grass that have been flattened by the weather into unusual mounds like giant pin cushions. The textures of the grasses and trees provide interest. The cool wintry shades of green in the image all complement one another and there’s the occasional streak of gold to suggest the last days of autumn and the faint warmth of the sun.
Gosh, did all that go through my head as I was about to take the shot?! No, of course it didn’t! Most of it was subconscious, and realised later as I analysed why the image works. At the time I loved the light, the shapes of the grasses and the stream through the middle. I decided that a portrait shot would work better than landscape and that it should be more or less symmetrical.
The subconscious stuff is the result of years of practice. Years of taking thousands of images, years of noticing when a photograph works and spotting when it doesn’t. But don’t let this put you off and make you down tools. Chances are you’re already quite good at this without knowing it. Since your early years you’ve been exposed to beautiful photos in books, magazines, online and have also seen hundreds of movies and television programmes where the composition and light are stunning. This all has an effect, seeping into your subconscious and shaping your creativity.
Let’s bring this back down to earth a bit. Taking great photographs isn’t about the gear and it isn’t about how much technical knowhow you have. For me, three other elements are much more important: Light. Composition. Message.
To help explain these I’ve enlisted the help of some members of my Facebook photography group, Love Your Lens. I asked them to send me their favourite wintry images and I selected my top three.
The perfect light
This beautiful image of a frost covered tree demonstrates perfectly how light can transform a subject from something quite ordinary into something extraordinary. The rosy, warm dawn light has really brought it to life, making it stand out against the colder, grey areas. But you have to be quick. Mess around for too long with camera settings and you’ve missed the moment. The secret is to put in the practice and then the settings will become second nature, letting you focus more on the creative side.
Composition matters
Composition is just a fancy word for things being in the right place so that the image says what you want it to. It’s an area of photography that people can find very daunting and there are many rules that can seem complex and hard to apply. Learning some of these rules is no bad thing and has improved my photography over the years. However, there are some basic principles that are easy to use, without feeling overwhelmed.
Make sure there’s a strong and obvious focal point. In this wintry scene in Marbury Park near Northwich this is clearly the gates, but there’s also interest provided by the trees beyond them and the path leading away into the distance. Leading lines are another simple, but very effective technique to create a sense of depth in the image.
Take a few seconds to check that there’s nothing in the frame that you don’t want there. Everything you’ve included should be there for a reason. Without the branches reaching across from the right-hand side, the top two thirds of the photograph would have appeared bland and empty. Transforming this image into black and white has further emphasised the cold, wintry feel and has made the gates and trees stand out in strong contrast. These are all quite simple things that work together to make the finished photo have more impact.
The WOW factor
Like me you’ve probably taken many photographs that seemingly ticked all the boxes: they’re in focus, the light is nice, and the composition is good. But you are still left with a sense that it’s just not that special, it’s a bit ‘meh’, when actually you were hoping for ‘WOW!’
Remember that old saying ‘a picture is worth a thousand words?’ It’s a powerful reminder that photography is a way of communicating a message visually, without the need for words. If your photos feel a bit boring it’s highly likely that they are not saying anything very interesting, or that there’s no story or emotional connection with the viewer.
Great shots make you feel something as you look at them. They make you laugh or cry, feel hungry or cold, tug at your heart strings or simply make you say ‘WOW!’ You’ll see amazing examples of images that do this daily in the press, but you don’t have to be a photojournalist to achieve this.
As soon as I saw this photo of Brandy I loved it. The photographer has captured her joy and sheer delight of being off the leash and free to tear across a frosty field in Weaverham at full pelt. You can’t help but smile and admire all the details, from her ears flying in the air to her gorgeous brown eyes and lolling pink tongue. You even get a sense of how fast she’s running and how cold it is from the bits of frost in the air and ice on the ends of her ears.
It is also technically a very good photograph and is a great example of why cameras still hold their own against phones, and why it is worth mastering settings like shutter speed and aperture. It’s beautifully sharp despite the dog’s speed, the detail is wonderful, and the background blur is smooth and realistic. It would be a challenge to capture an image this good with a phone. But never say never, as we are seeing such fantastic advances in phone camera technology.
Use it or lose it
If you want to become good at a particular sport or at playing a musical instrument you have to put in the work and practise regularly. Photography is no exception. And we’ve seen how it’s not all about understanding the technology or the settings, practising how to see a great photograph is perhaps even more important. Think of creativity as a muscle that has to be exercised regularly. Taking on a photography project or challenge is an excellent way to do this and to keep you motivated. The project can be big (365: a photograph a day for a year) and small (a day in the life of my dog / horse / child). If you’re short of ideas, then search online. I’ve witnessed countless times how much this helps people to grow as photographers. You’ll find that you are looking for photo opportunities throughout the day, seeking out amazing light, interesting textures and colours in the world around you.
No comments yet.