Large Format Landscapes

[Jody_S]

Not much to photograph here in winter... except snow. Which, by it's nature, doesn't like to be photographed.



Expired 5x7 tri-x, Congo 300/6.3 in Packard

[C. D. Keth]

Whenever I try to photograph snow, I print it and there's nothing on the paper but white. It's sneaky stuff.

[Vaughn]

Whenever I try to photograph snow, I print it and there's nothing on the paper but white. It's sneaky stuff.

But even if it is perfect in the print -- does it translate over the internet?

Snow, Skull
Mono Lake Basin
16x20 Silver Gelatin Print
4x5 negative (TMax 100)

[C. D. Keth]

Good point well illustrated.

[Jody_S]

Whenever I try to photograph snow, I print it and there's nothing on the paper but white. It's sneaky stuff.

I wish I had some words of wisdom to give, and you might think I would given that snow covers the ground here for several months of the year, the very same months when I'm usually not working and I'm able to walk around with a camera. Unfortunately, you would be mistaken.

Far as I know, it's impossible to photograph a snowy scene on a sunny day, and still capture detail or features of the snow. I waited til just after the sun set that day, freezing my a** off (I had a can of beer to keep me company, it froze solid in the can), and I had barely 15 minutes to work with. Given that the snow was above my knees, I'm proud of the fact that I managed to get 3 decent shots in that 15 minute window.

As for showing it on the 'net, it's easy enough to darken the photo a little, unfortunately if you darken too much it turns to mud, and most people don't have calibrated monitors so any given rendition will only show well on a fraction of the monitors that are out there.

[Martin Aislabie]

Not much to photograph here in winter... except snow. Which, by it's nature, doesn't like to be photographed.



Expired 5x7 tri-x, Congo 300/6.3 in Packard

Fabulous

Its so hard to pull these shots off

Martin

[Tony Evans]

"Far as I know, it's impossible to photograph a snowy scene on a sunny day, and still capture detail or features of the snow".

Jody,

I succeeded in this endeavour years ago in my 35mm days. Secret for me was Pan F in Rodinal, spot metering on the brightest snow spot with texture and placing that on Zone 8.5. Now as a still- learning LF'er, I am hoping to replicate this with Acros 100 in Rodinal stand. Not there yet.

[Peter Yeti]

Far as I know, it's impossible to photograph a snowy scene on a sunny day, and still capture detail or features of the snow.

This might be a misunderstanding. If the sun is low, it can bring out the subtle structure and features of the snow particularly beautifully. I just printed a couple of negatives from the mountains with plenty of detail. Negative contrast was reduced a bit by the film development, which helps not to block the highlights. Unfortunately, these are MF so I cannot show them here. Just try it, it works.

Good luck,

Peter

[jp]

I love snow and consider it easier to photograph in than normal outdoors since the shadows become more interesting and extraneous detail/crap is beautifully covered over. I use an incident meter, pmk (for sunny snow pix) or pyrocat HD, and either tmy2 or fomapan 100.

My recent snow photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13759696@N02/

Check out what these guys do:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/juhankuvia/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/winkelkanu/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wolfgang_moersch/

[Drew Wiley]

Snow in bright sun is easy. Pyro helps, as does a long-scale film. Keep the brightest readings for Zone VII, since you'll want some wiggle room for tiny sparkly highlights the
meter is incapable of reading individually. Throw in some dark black volcanic rocks with
hard shadows and you'll have a decent excercise in technique. Pan F won't work for holding those low values at the same time - too much toe. Either TMax is a good choice.
True straight-line films like Bergger 200, Foma 200, Super-XX, and Efke 25 were superb.