Recreational skiing photography

[Greg]

I love to snap a bunch of pics when skiing, both to demonstrate the conditions experienced in reports I post here as well as to document my ski season (they're fun to look at again in August... ). Anyway, we all know how difficult it is to get good shots when skiing. Some problems I've encountered are not being able to capture the true pitch of a steep run from the bottom. Another is a "graying" of the snow on a cloudy day. Anyone have any tips or tricks they want to share to make your recreational skiing pics the best they can be? Feel free to share the model of your camera as well as any example pics in this thread.

 

[Marc]

I've been into very basic photography for a couple years now.

Your first question regarding the pitch of a trail, well, I think is kind of impossible. I ran into the same thing mountain biking. A trail never looked as technical or steep on film as it did in real life. I think it has to do with factors like balance receptaion and depth perception, things out of our control when it comes to photography. Here are some mtb examples from Killington:

This pic is off of Ramshead. Very steep, very technical. I think I rode it cleanly once the whole weekend, after several, several attempts, and while I'm not an extremely proficient technical rider, I'm certainly above average.

Here's one of me, this was actually a front wheel drop situation. Doesn't look steep at all does it? But kind of judge where my center of gravity is by eye and drop it straight down. It ends up just behind my front wheel which means I was close to going over my handlebars. Which means it is much steeper than it looks.

Here's another nearly endo situation, that does not look very steep. By the way, this picture is in no way an endorsement of ESPN, I have no idea how his shirt ended up so clear like that.

As for the graying... the best I have ever been able to do is open the apeture and go for a slightly longer exposure. A touch over exposed will look normal. Using a clear UV filter helps I've found as well. I've never experimented with tinted filters, those supposedly help in low contrast situations, although when shooting on the snow in such a monochromatic situation, I don't know as though you could pic a color that would be beneficial to filter.

I'll have some skiing shots soon hopefully. I shoot with an older Cannon AE-1. Thinking about upgrading to digital but I might just buy a nicer scanner. The photos on my Zoto site are unclear mostly because I have (or had, actually) a poor quality scanner.

 

[stomachdoc]

the graying of snow is a white balance issue. I usually shoot RAW and then adjust in Photoshop or iPhoto.

In terms of trail pitch, get as low/beneath as you can and try and get a bit of close trail in the lowest aspect of your frame.

I'll try and post some examples....

 

[Catul]

I'm a passionate photographer, even have a part-time professional business (mostly portraits and sports photography), but haven't taken many skiing pictures. The main issue for me is committing to carrying my "big/real" camera, a digital SLR and professional lenses that are heavy and cumbersome; I find a pocketable/compact camera to be limiting, but it would be better than nothing at all.

The main tip for taking pictures in snow/bright conditions is to add 1/2 to 1 stop to the exposure your camera selects - all that snow fools a typical auto exposure, and results in a darker/grayish image. Also, auto white balance will result in the bluish cast; try to set it to daylight white balance if you can.

Here are a couple of images I took of my daughter last winter:

 

[billski]

Catul - love your photos - such clarity - what equipment do you use?

If you really need to get across the pitch of a trail, you need to have something vertical on a cross-section in the picture - either a long tall pine tree or another skier standing upright. Usually difficult to do the later since neither you nor your skier recognize the vertical until you are already down it!

I need a helmet cam!

 

[Catul]

Catul - love your photos - such clarity - what equipment do you use?

Thanks Bill! Those were shot with a Canon 1D Mark II digital SLR and a Canon 70-200/2.8L IS lens; I shoot RAW and process with Capture One dSLR and Photoshop. The results can be excellent, but it is a pain to lug that around when you're skiing; this one was easy 'cause my daughter was taking lessons on the bunny hill and I could stand pretty close and shoot. I need to take some new pictures this season, maybe I'll take the little point-and-shoot and see what I can get.

Here's one more from last year:

 

[Treeliner]

Great thread! I've been taking photos of all the trips I take to ski resorts for the past year with this very compact, weatherproof olympus camera. While it is a bit limiting (it's just a point and shoot), it gets the job done. I've ran into the same problems you have encountered. The thing I do to deal with snow/white balance issues, is edit my photos in a version of photoshop that came with my computer. With capturing the steepness, well.. that's a tough one, I usually try to get the horizon line (background mountains) straightened and visible, but that isn't always an option.

 

[Greg]

I've had success bumping up the brightness in Paint Shop Pro as well. For the pitch problem, I've found that a zoomed in distance shot sometime portrays the steepness better. If you can take the shot from an opposing slope or area with a bit of elevation, even better. Here is an example of each:

Zoom in on Sugarloaf summit trails:

Shot of Jiminy from across the street (slightly elevated):

 

[loafer89]

This is my son on Cathedral Brook at Belleayre last saturday. It was late in the afternoon (2:00pm) so it was a rather dark shot. Warren is leaning back because the slope is quite steep at the point he is on.

I use a 6.1MP Kodak DX7630

 

[NYDrew]

I have a little hobby in photography. Because of the places i take my camaras (ie, skiing) I opt for cheap camaras.

I used to use only disposable camaras. They do take excellent pictures. I just switched to a digital that I picked up for $12. Some crappy vivitar that takes awesome pictures so long as you dont need a flash.

Some tips.
When outdoors, don't use a flash. I feel the natural light gives much more aestetic pictures. When I get back to school, Ill show you my favorite pic, when i took it, I argued for 10 minutes over wheather I needed to use a flash. I didn't, he did. His picture stunk, mine...well, its my favorite (were hiking in a river crevace near Munich...there was an opening above that bareley let light in)

Keep your camara warm..like in an inside pocket. The warmer it is, the faster the shutter will be. That blur in your first picture (backround) won't be as bad. See how crispy the backrounds in marcs pics are, probably did nothing different except warm weather.

To capture slope, try to catch someone in a turn transition and focus on the bottom of their skiis. The angle is close to the counter to the slope (see my sugarbush pics)

To capture a person, make sure they are coming straight at you when you snap. I just find its a better picture.

Be careful when wearing gloves. Those fingers always find their way into the best shots.

I am not even an amatuer, I just love to take pictures. I don't know if these tips are what you would call professional.

Good luck

 

[loafer89]

I consider this my best and favorite sking picture of the last few years:

The lighting and weather was perfect.

 

[awf170]

Feel free to share the model of your camera as well as any example pics in this thread.

On flat light days converting to greyscale, then turning contrast way up, and brightness a little down can be pretty cool.
I have few examples but for some reason they wont upload(I think it is because they are in bmp. format, whatever that is :-? )

edit: just figured out the pics wont work because they are 11mb how did they get so big? How can I get them smaller?

 

[bvibert]

Feel free to share the model of your camera as well as any example pics in this thread.

On flat light days converting to greyscale, then turning contrast way up, and brightness a little down can be pretty cool.
I have few examples but for some reason they wont upload(I think it is because they are in bmp. format, whatever that is :-? )

edit: just figured out the pics wont work because they are 11mb how did they get so big? How can I get them smaller?

They're so big because they're .bmp (bitmap images). Save them as .jpg (JPEG images) and the file size will go way down, though you may have to play with the quality settings...

 

[goldsbar]

Most people, when standing at the top of a 30* hill, would think it's very steep. Draw a 30* on some paper. Doesn't look very steep. I think that's half the problem. What your eyes tell you is steep isn't always really that steep.

This especially holds for those mountain biking shots. I've been an avid cyclist for years. Trails that seem technical to most people - I'm not talking the extreme stuff w/ 10 foot drops, etc. - are almost never very difficult to walk up. It just feels a lot different when you're behind the handle bars.

 

[awf170]

Feel free to share the model of your camera as well as any example pics in this thread.

On flat light days converting to greyscale, then turning contrast way up, and brightness a little down can be pretty cool.
I have few examples but for some reason they wont upload(I think it is because they are in bmp. format, whatever that is :-? )

edit: just figured out the pics wont work because they are 11mb how did they get so big? How can I get them smaller?

They're so big because they're .bmp (bitmap images). Save them as .jpg (JPEG images) and the file size will go way down, though you may have to play with the quality settings...

thanks.

 

[riverc0il]

I love to snap a bunch of pics when skiing, both to demonstrate the conditions experienced in reports I post here as well as to document my ski season (they're fun to look at again in August... ). Anyway, we all know how difficult it is to get good shots when skiing. Some problems I've encountered are not being able to capture the true pitch of a steep run from the bottom. Another is a "graying" of the snow on a cloudy day. Anyone have any tips or tricks they want to share to make your recreational skiing pics the best they can be? Feel free to share the model of your camera as well as any example pics in this thread.

great topic. the ammount of people stopped on the side of the trail to snap a shot definitely shows you that there are lots of people that enjoy capturing their skiing trips on film.

the color issue is easily solved by obtaining a photo editing program that can adjust the levels of the photo. i received a generous donation a few years back of a software program that substantially helped improve the quality of my shots even on the dullest and grayest of days.

regarding capturing pitch of a trail, try angling the shot towards the side of the trail instead of straight down or up. more at an angle though, not directly across the trail into the trees. try to capture something in the distance just above the trees and show the slope dropping away. bonus points if you can capture a skier going down with a hard angulation and good body posture.

examples such as this one show that capturing something in additional to the trail itself and angling slightly away from straight down are helpful. this shot actually makes the trail look steeper than it acutally is, if that can be imagined:
http://www.thesnowway.com/ski/2005/cannon031005/031005cannon03.jpg
http://www.thesnowway.com/ski/2005/cannon031005/031005cannon02.jpg

cropping out some of the foreground to make the shot appear higher off the ground helps a bit too:
http://www.thesnowway.com/ski/2005/cannon031005/031005cannon04.jpg

sparse trees can really help define angle if you can capture them:
http://www.thesnowway.com/ski/2005/cannon031005/031005cannon07.jpg

tall shots work better than long i find:
http://www.thesnowway.com/ski/2005/cannon030305/030305cannon04.jpg

straight down the fall line:
http://www.thesnowway.com/ski/2003/cannon040603/040603cannon02.jpg

compared to directly across at an angle with a background feature:
http://www.thesnowway.com/ski/2003/cannon040603/040603cannon03.jpg

pretty much same location on those two shots but the pitch looks substantially different.

in general, i always look for something a little different. i try to capture multiple aspects in my photos. don't just take a shot of a mountain, but juxtapose it to something else.

framing is always an interesting way to get people more into what you are shotting in a first person sense:
http://www.thesnowway.com/ski/2003/cannon040603/040603cannon09.jpg
http://www.thesnowway.com/ski/2004/wildcat032704/032704wildcat01.jpg
http://www.thesnowway.com/ski/2005/cannon031005/031005cannon01.jpg

think of the photo as having some depth. what is in the foreground, what is in the middle, and what is in the background? do you have those three depths? maybe you only have two if it is a close up of a person or action shot, but without people you need to have some depth to a photo.
http://www.thesnowway.com/ski/2006/cannon112705/112705cannon08.jpg
http://www.thesnowway.com/ski/2006/cannon112705/112705cannon03.jpg

sometimes, you just gotta be in the right moment at the right time to capture something special
http://www.thesnowway.com/ski/2005/mrg012205/012205mrg05.jpg


:beer:

 

[riverc0il]

btw, all of those pics were taken on a junky 2.2 Megapixel Kodak DX3600 from 5 or 6 years ago. you do not need a great camera to take great pictures. most pics that get posted online are scaled down to size anyways. the increased size of the picture helps when cropping down pics. don't be affraid to crop! once i realized i could take a big shot without zooming in and crop out what i wanted, i felt my photos increased in quality substantially.

i now have a 6.0 megapixel olympus stylus 600 that i can't wait to try out!

 

[eatskisleep]

I ahve a Stylus... 400 4.0 Megapixel and it takes terrific shots. I actually have one forsale- I bought two :lol: Long story...

I like this picture the best. http://www.thesnowway.com/ski/2006/cannon112705/112705cannon08.jpg
8)
awf170-The second picture is great. Is that near where you live? Looks like a pretty chill place.

 

[riverc0il]

i am a sucker for a good panoramic shot

 

[salida]

i have some panos, its quite a few megs so be hesitant to click if you dont have broad band http://ecampus.bentley.edu/org/skiclub/pano3.jpg

PS there was not tons of skiing in these... but they are panos