If you think winter is for staying inside and editing the macro photographs you did during the other seasons, you couldn’t be more wrong. Winter could be one of the best seasons for macro photography.
It’s true that you don’t benefit from insects flying around and fresh flowers and mushrooms at any corner. Instead, you have much more artistic subject matters and light at its softest and easiest to work. And instead of colorful subjects, you have more texture, contrast, and geometry.
Winter macro photography is creative and challenging. It may be sweet or dramatic, abstract or realistic, and everything else in between. Check out the following tips for capturing the perfect winter macro photography.
Focus on Winter’s Special Features
Instead of complaining that you don’t get the usual subjects for your macro photography, focus on what only this time of the year offers. It’s a unique opportunity to try new subject matters such as snowflakes on your car window, the texture of frost, and crystal clear icicles — maybe even melting ones that produce water drops.
At the same time, winter is the season for many holidays that provide unique subject matters, too. You may want to include in your macro photography portfolio macro shots of Christmas items, New Year traditional dishes, or Hanukkah candles, for example.
When photographing a wildflower, it is much more difficult to create context. The viewer can hardly say whether it is spring, summer, or autumn, or whether the flower grows in the mountains or a meadow. Although, with winter, contextualization is much easier to do. It adds a temporal dimension and another layer to your visual story. The viewer knows exactly when the story is happening, can sense the cold, feel the frozen flowers, or enjoy the holidays. As a result, winter macro photography packs much more flavor and meaning.
Take Outdoor Macro Photography
The great outdoors has plenty to offer for winter macro photography. You may want to revisit a few of your favorite places and capture the changes in nature. It will produce a photo series with a strong narrative line that symbolizes the passing of time and the constant evolution of everything that surrounds us.
Frozen berries and mushrooms, the delicate coverage of snow, resilient leaves refusing to leave an otherwise empty branch, and patterns and textures of ice and snow are just some of the subject matters that await the macro photographer outside. If it is cold enough, you can even photograph delicate snowflakes or create soap bubbles and capture them while they freeze.
Nature is surprisingly full of tiny details. You may still find blossomed wildflowers and mushrooms, even in the bitter cold. Some seeds — such as rosehip — provide vivid colors. And dry grass has a way of creating abstract patterns you rarely see in other seasons.
Protect Your Gear (and Yourself) from Cold
Taking your photo gear outside on winter days is risky. The cold may create condense on the lens and camera’s electric circuits. It also reduces the battery life and may discharge them even when not used. The humidity may ruin cameras and lenses without weather and water-resistant sealing. So, there is plenty to consider when planning a winter macro photography outdoor session.
First, ensure you keep the extra batteries in a warm pocket. You can get an insulated camera back or keep them in your coat’s inner pockets.
Next, check if your gear is weather and water-resistant. If it’s not, you can add an extra layer of protection, such as a camera rain cover. Like this one, for example:
Then, let the gear slowly get to the outside temperature. Don’t take it quickly out of the car or the house. Let it accommodate. The same applies when taking the gear from a colder to a warmer place. It may take a few minutes to bring the camera indoors without fogging the lens.
Lastly, equip yourself with good-quality gloves, warm clothes, and waterproof boots. You want to be comfortable in the snow and focused on your photography, which is much more difficult to do when you have wet feet and frozen hands. Macro photography requires precision. Getting the right focus is challenging, even in the best conditions. With frozen hands, it will be impossible to focus where you need to.
Adapt Exposure and White Balance to Snow
Photographing snow is tricky because it creates a high contrast, and the camera doesn’t always get it right. To capture the perfect white snow — and not a bluish version — you need to adjust the white balance focusing on the snow. On a sunny day, use a patch of snow in the shadows: otherwise, the rest of the frame will look awkward.
The same applies to exposure. You need to set the exposure for the brightest area to avoid getting overexposed snow. If you use the camera in Auto mode, set a +1 exposure compensation to keep it from making the snow look gray. The camera always tries to compensate for extremely white areas and doesn’t understand it is winter. Keep an eye on the photo’s histogram and check that you don’t have abrupt cuts at either end.
However, winter is a good time to try high-key photography. This means you can intentionally overexpose your photos for artistic purposes. In high-key photography, snow is allowed to be shockingly white, so set the exposure for the darker areas of the scene.
Use Natural Light for Macro Photography
Winter is one of the best seasons for macro photography due to its soft grayish light that creates few shadows. Many winter days are overcast, and even sunny days usually benefit only from pale sunlight. Therefore, it’s unlikely that you’ll risk casting your shadow over the subject. The even illumination and the brightness of the snow work in your favor.
Furthermore, days are short, making sunrise and sunset happen at reasonable times. You can benefit from beautiful natural light without much effort. The golden or purple light of sunrise and sunset spectacularly affects mostly monochrome winter scenes.
Add an Artificial Light Source
Natural light is good but, often, it’s not enough. When you need more light to get the right exposure or the composition you want, an artificial light source comes in handy.
You can use a speed light with a diffuser in two ways: on-camera to create frontal illumination or off-camera to create side illumination or even backlighting. The diffuser produces an evenly spread and soft light that complements the subject’s features and mixes well with the ambient light.
A continuous LED light is also a good addition to your gear. It’s lightweight, easy to set up, and very versatile. Furthermore, you get to see the effect of the light before taking the photo and make any required adjustments. It may save some time, which is important when photographing in the bitter cold. Continuous LED lights may also provide many more light colors and brightness levels than a flash unit.
Look for Indoor Macro Photography Subjects
However beautiful winter may be, sometimes you can’t (or don’t want to) get out of the house. This means you have a lot of time to discover mundane items that make exceptional macro photos.
You may want to try taking close-ups of apartment plants or food. If you look closely, you may discover how interesting a piece of fabric may be or fall in love with textures such as walls, furniture, or carpets. There is also a chance you get into photographing jewelry, clock mechanisms, or toys.
If existing objects don’t provide enough challenge, create art projects. Photograph water droplets and paint spreading in liquids, milk or coffee splashes, steam, or smoke. Use pigments to make your work more interesting. An old make-up palette may become the star of your next macro photograph.
Nevertheless, indoor macro photography shouldn’t be just still life. You may want to photograph details of people and animals as well. Some ideas to work with are eyes, freckles and wrinkles, and hands. For animals, also choose the eyes and iris, whiskers, paws, and patches of fur or skin.
Conclusion
Don’t be a seasonal macro photographer. Take great photos all year round. Each season has something different to offer, and the more diverse your portfolio is, the better. Winter, in particular, is rich in significance and adds to your visual story. As nature tones down, the contrast is more obvious. Winter macro photography is more geometric and dramatic. But even the meaning of winter is contrasting. People associate it not only with cold and snow but also with time passing, old age, sadness, nostalgia, and the joy of the holidays. It’s up to you how you want to tell your winter stories.
