That time of year is almost upon us again – snow time! Here are our top photography tips for taking photos in the snow this winter.

Wrap up warm

It may sound obvious that you should wrap up warm when taking your camera outside in the winter, but we are not just thinking about your health (though for sure we care about this too!). Actually what we have in mind is to make sure you don’t spoil your shots by  and shaking. Remember to put on your woolly hat and gloves (fingerless ones are great if you have any) before you go outside.

Keep your camera and batteries warm too

Unless you are out in extreme cold temperatures, your camera itself should operate fine. If it is really very cold don’t keep your camera out for too long at a time and try to keep it in an inside pocket when you are not using it. The warmth from your body will warm the camera up again. Batteries are move of an issue, as they will lose their charge very quickly in extreme temperatures. Make sure to take a spare set of batteries or two with you and keep these in an inside pocket too.

Get up early

Not only is the light better for taking photos of the snow early in the day, but if it snowed heavily in the night this will also be the best time of the day. Taking your snaps while the snow is still crisp and clean and before there are footprints absolutely everywhere will end up with much better results.

Get down low

If you are taking a photo of something in the snow (like a snowman) rather than just the snowy landscape itself, try to get down low. This may lead to cold and wet knees but will result in the background not being completely filled with snow. A snowman with a background of bushes or houses shows up much better than a snowman with a snowy background. To solve the cold/wet knees issue, take an old piece of carpet matting with you to protect them.

Snow mode

Check to see if your camera has a special preset automatic mode for taking pictures in the snow. If so, turn it on. If you want to know the technical jargon behind how your pink camera’s snow mode works – what it does it do reduce the exposure settings to avoid the photo being over-exposed (too much light) and compensate the white-balance to avoid the photos being off colour. If these is no snow mode on your camera, check the manual to see if the white-balance and exposure-compensation settings can be manually set.

Things to consider on sunny days

As mentioned above, photos of snow can often come out the wrong colour. On sunny days with clear blue skies this can be especially problematic, with snow turning out like it has been in a blue rinse. While this effect can be fun, most of the time it is not what you wanted. While it can be corrected quite well on your computer later (with a tool like Photoshop Elements), it is better to get it right from the start. Experiment with the white-balance settings available to you on your particular model.

Also an issue on snowy sunny days are shadows. Especially in winter with the sun low in the sky, the shadows seem to get everywhere. Consider where you are standing in relation to the sun and check for shadows before shooting (or at least before you go home and it is too late to take another shot).

Use flash to light up faces

Light reflects off the snow and bounces lots of it into the lens. Because of this peoples faces will often be forced into shadowy silhouettes. This can be avoided by simply turning on the camera’s flash and filling the subjects face with light to compensate the background.

I am often asked for advice on how to take better photos. Here are ten simple tips for improving photography results which anyone can do. No specialist equipment needed just a plan old simple pink camera.

Take lots of photos, not just one

Gone are the days when there were only 36 shots on a roll-of film and you have to pay for every shot. Once you have bought your digital camera each shot you take costs nothing except the time to stop and take it. So take lots of photos. Don’t just take one photo of that medieval church – take a few moments to walk around and take shots from different places. Try different things, be experimental. You can delete the bad shots (and there will be some) and keep the good ones.

Consider the angle you are shooting at

Whatever it is you are taking a photo of is not necessarily at its best when see from your own eye level. For example – you are taking a photo of ducks in a pond. If you stand up straight and angle the camera down toward the ducks your photo will end up looking down on the ducks. Bend down and get nearer to the ducks own level. Similarly, if you’re taking a photo of something tall or high up, try to get yourself higher. Stand on some steps maybe. You will take stunning photos when you put yourself at the best vantage point.

Always be ready and be patient

Some moments are gone as soon as they appear. This is particularly true if the subject can move, like a child or a pet. By keeping your camera at the ready all the time you’ll stand the most chance of snapping that must-have moment saved forever. Sometimes you need to be patient too and bide your time until that moment comes along.

Arrange subjects and use props

Particularly important when taking photos of groups of people is to make sure everyone is in the perfect place. Have the tall ones stand at the back so they are not blocking out the shorter ones. Have a mix of sitting and standing. Use props that are nearby like benches, picnic tables to arrange people, If you have time try different shots and see what works.

Be candid

In contrast to the shot in the above tip, sometimes you don’t want photos to look posed. An example here would be at a party, where you want to show the participants having fun. If you ask them to stop what they are doing to pose for a photo, all the fun will be drained out of the shot. On these occasions don’t stick the camera in peoples faces and ask them to smile – be candid. Capture the shot without being noticed. One idea for doing in this to use the zoom and capture the photo from afar where people don’t even notice you. Hide the camera behind something so that people don’t notice you sneaking up on them.

Consider the positioning of the subject in the photo

Don’t be fooled into thinking that the subject always has to be in the centre of the shot. Invariably this is definitely NOT the best place. One good example to make this an easy to understand photo tip, would be a picture of a speedboat. Instead of having a the speedboat in the middle, move the frame slightly so that you can see plenty of water in front of it – space for the speedboat to move into. This will lead to a more natural composition. Another good example that springs to mind is a child jumping. Leave some space underneath to give them somewhere to drop back down into.

Consider the background as well as the foreground

Try to take notice of the entire frame, not just the foreground subject you are trying to capture. What is in the background? Does it distract the viewer – it shouldn’t.

Be careful about shadows

Before you snap, have a think about the lighting in your photo. Is someone positioned where there shadow is falling on someone or something else where you don’t want it to be. Move both yourself and the subject(s) around until it looks better. If you are not sure, take the shot and then look at it on the LCD screen to check it all looks OK before moving on. You can always change something and take the shot again.

Avoid silhouetted faces by using your flash in the daytime too

Similar to unwanted shadows in photo tip above, be careful about silhouettes on sunny days. If the sun is behind someone you are photographing, you will end up with a silhouette of them. Unless this is what you intend and if it is not possible to re-arrange things (a sunset for example) then turn on your flash to light up the face of the person.

Sony this week announced the upcoming launch of the Cybershot TX5 Compact Digital Camera in pink.

The Sony Cybershot DSC-TX5 is sleek and slim with a slide-down face that reveals the lens and the flash. Almost the entire back of the camera is used to provide a very generous 3″ LCD touch screen. No space is lost on the rear for controls and buttons – nearly everything is driven through the touch-operated menu system.

Despite looking all delicate and dainty, the TX5 is one of the most robust digital compact cameras in the world. It’s curvy body is extremely rugged. It is built to withstand all sorts of extremes – like surviving a drop from up to about 5 feet or being as much as 10 feet underwater for up to an hour. Even extreme temperatures pose no problem. The pink DSC-TX5 is designed to work at any temperature between -10° and +40° celcius. Add to this the fact that the pink Sony TX5 is certified as dust and sand-proof and you might begin to wonder just what you do have to do to destroy it.

The 10 megapixel TX5 features a Carl Zeiss Vario- Tessar lens offering a 4x ultra-wide optical zoom (25mm to 100mm equivalent). Combined with a 9-point Auto-Focus system that can detect up to 8 faces in the shot and SteadyShot image stabilisation system results surely be pleasingly pin-sharp.

Many manual settings and preset modes are available, from lighting modes to ISO speeds. There’s also a fully automatic mode which yields great point-and-click results too. For taking shots of fast moving objects (whether it be racing cars or young kids), the super-fast burst rate of 10 frames per second for up to ten shots even at maximum resolution helps you to be certain that you have the best shot. Keep the best, delete the others. For indoor shots, the TX5′s flash has a range of up to 9.5 feet (reduced to 7.9 at maximum zoom).

As well as great stills, the pink Cybershot TX5 has a 720p HD video mode (as well as an SD 640×480 pixel mode) which makes MP4 format movies at 29.97 frames per second with monaural audio.

Another great feature to be found on the TX5 is Sony’s Sweep Panorama mode which allows for automatic panoramas to be made directly by the camera. Turning through up to 258 degrees will allow up to 100 shots to be taken and automatically stitched together to a single image.

When it comes to storage, Sony is once again a little more open-minded than in the past and allows a choice of either their own proprietary Memory Stick PRO Duo cards or plain simple (and frankly, much more popular) Secure Digital (SD) and SDHC cards. If the worst happens and you accidentally leave your memory card at home, the pink Cybershot TX5 has 45MB of in-built memory so at least a handful of shots are still possible.

Power comes from a Sony InfoLithium NP-BN1 rechargeable battery (the charger is supplied in the box), which the company claims is good for about 250 shots before it needs charging (assuming you don’t use the flash too much that is). Sony’s Picture Motion Browser v5.0 and Picture Motion Browser Portable (5.0 for Windows / 1.1 for Mac OS) software is also included.

Dimensions
The TX5 is 94mm (W) x 57mm (H) x 18mm (D) and weighs just 144g with the battery installed.

In addition to pink, the the the new model will be available in a choice of black, silver, red and green and is expected to be available from April.

As soon as it is launched we will be sure to compare prices of all the major stores so that you can find the cheapest pink Sony Cybershot DSC-TX5 here. Why not set a bookmark and check back regularly.

In a recent press release, Nikon has announced the release coming soon of the Nikon Coolpix S4000 in a range of colours to include pink.

The Pink S4000 will feature a resolution of 12.0 megapixels, enabling great quality prints of up to 16 x 20 inches. The 4x optical zoom wide-angle glass lens is from NIKKOR and is supported by the companies 4-way VR Image Stabilization System.

Video wise, the pink Coolpix S4000 will be capable of HD recording in 720p format at 24 frames per second to ensure great quality smooth motion pictures in addition to superb stills.

Compare prices of the Pink Nikon Coolpix S4000

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