Snow filming

redrussell · Jan 7, 2017

Just got about 6" of snow here and I'm looking forward to filming the snow fall. Anyone got any tip on photography or filming in the snow like camera settings. Side note

nly editing software I have is a free photoshop through windows.

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jiggyb21 · Jan 7, 2017

The only thing I will say is you will probably need the highest ND filter you have. The snow is brutal on exposure.

Erised · Jan 7, 2017

If it's sunny you will need a ND filter like jiggy said. My darkest filter is a ND16 and works well on sunny days. On overcast days the filters, even a ND4 makes the snow look grey so I use no filters and work on exposure and the snow is white and I get good results. I am still testing to get the best results using a filters on overcast days and correcting in post with software.

CrispyClaret · Jan 7, 2017

You could always do things the old fashioned way and change your exposure.
Remember that all cameras, film or digital try to expose so that the overall result is a mid grey tone. White snow will look grey, black pussycat will look grey. You need to over expose if it is predominantly snow in your image and might need as much as 2 stops over (ev these days i guess).
Shooting video your choices are limited, with stills you can bracket your exposures and combine the piccies in software that produces HDR images. Not famliar with your editing software, so hdr might not be an option for you but its still worth bracketing and veer towards over exposure rather than under.

ChiefStealth · Jan 7, 2017

Almost every snow vid I've seen looks black&white. No color. All the white of the snow just washes everything out. What are the tips for getting some color into snow vids?

Honkysdrone · Jan 7, 2017

jiggyb21 said:
The only thing I will say is you will probably need the highest ND filter you have. The snow is brutal on exposure.

Absolutely agree

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CrispyClaret · Jan 8, 2017

ChiefStealth said:
Almost every snow vid I've seen looks black&white. No color. All the white of the snow just washes everything out. What are the tips for getting some color into snow vids?

You could boost your colour saturation, but it really does depend in what else is in the scene apart from snow. Bare trees are not exactly colourful with or without snow and conifers tend to be just a dark green, not exactly vibrant at best. Winter is a dead time, any plantlife has long ago lost its bright colours you get in early spring.

CrispyClaret · Jan 8, 2017

jiggyb21 said:
The only thing I will say is you will probably need the highest ND filter you have. The snow is brutal on exposure.

Only useful if you can fit a graduated nd filter and I have not seen any for drone use, happy to be corrected if they exist. Exposing properly for the snow will burn out the sky, hence the need for a grad. Just plonking an nd filter on will only lengthen the exposure time but as its uniform it will make no difference to the overall result.

jiggyb21 · Jan 8, 2017

Polar Pro makes a graduated ND8 that I have. Unfortunately, still not enough for mid day snow.

Then there's tis one which has been out of stock for a while.

P3 & P4 Series Graduated ND16-8 Filter

Lunatech · Jan 8, 2017

PolarPro - Circular Polarizer and Neutral Density Lens Filters for DJI Phantom 3 and Phantom 4 (3-Count) - Black

I picked these up at BestBuy the other day (when they were still on sale) and used the polarized lens in our recent snow. It did really well in cutting the glare and not making everything look grey. I'll try and remember to post some pics and videos here once I get them uploaded.

jiggyb21 · Jan 8, 2017

Lunatech said:
PolarPro - Circular Polarizer and Neutral Density Lens Filters for DJI Phantom 3 and Phantom 4 (3-Count) - Black

I picked these up at BestBuy the other day (when they were still on sale) and used the polarized lens in our recent snow. It did really well in cutting the glare and not making everything look grey. I'll try and remember to post some pics and videos here once I get them uploaded.

Please do!

Lunatech · Jan 9, 2017

Here is some footage I finally got uploaded to Youtube from our most recent NC snow.

ChiefStealth · Jan 9, 2017

Lunatech said:
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Here is some footage I finally got uploaded to Youtube from our most recent NC snow.

Earlier you wrote that you bought some filters. Did you use any filters for your snow vid?

Lunatech · Jan 9, 2017

ChiefStealth said:
Earlier you wrote that you bought some filters. Did you use any filters for your snow vid?

Yes. I used the polarized filter. I have some other video from later in the day when the sun really came out and the lens worked really well then (still working on getting it online). I shouldn't have had it on for this video as it was really cloudy and made it a bit dark but hey learning is part of the fun.