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Warm In Winter: Gear and Technique for Winter Photography | 4K
Jul 24, 2023
Warm In Winter: Gear and Technique for Winter Photography | Living in Canada, Photographer Dustin Abbott has a lot of experience with winter photography. Some people shut it down for the winter, but there are some beautiful images to be had if you dress right...and use a few gear tricks to help! Check out the image gallery with images shared in the episode: http://bit.ly/warminwinterDA Purchase the FreeHands Photography Gloves: https://bhpho.to/2G9YcD9 Purchase Rechargeable Hand Warmers: https://amzn.to/2UcKGS0 Purchase the Vello Shutter Boss: https://bhpho.to/2FZjzXH Purchase the Ruggard Camera Parka: https://bhpho.to/2FYeH53 Purchase the Peak Design 5L from Peak Design: http://bit.ly/2E15Uwl | B&H Photo: https://bhpho.to/2yO5xo0 | Amazon: https://amzn.to/2yUDmEa | Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/2KuRyEQ Purchase a Down Jacket: https://amzn.to/2Em9kLj Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo: http://bhpho.to/1TA0Xge Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/shop/dustinabbott Ebay: http://bit.ly/DustineBay Make a donation via Paypal: paypal.me/dustinTWI Get a discount off all Skylum Editing Software (Luminar, Aurora HDR, AirMagic) by using code DUSTINHDR at checkout: http://bit.ly/LuminarDLA Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/dustinabbott | Check me out on: Personal Website: http://dustinabbott.net/ | Sign up for my Newsletter: http://bit.ly/1RHvUNp | Instagram: http://bit.ly/DLAinsta | Google+: http://bit.ly/24PjMzv | Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1nuUUeH | Twitter: http://bit.ly/1RyYxIH | Flickr: http://bit.ly/1UcnC0B | 500px: http://bit.ly/1Sy2Ngu My filming setup: Sony a7R III: B&H Photo: https://bhpho.to/2D6ibNO or Amazon: http://amzn.to/2CNxOvH | or | Sony a9 @ B&H Photo: https://bhpho.to/2HyWIyt or Amazon: https://amzn.to/2s1vYE0
View Video Transcript
0:00
Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott. I talk a lot about weather sealing when it comes to cameras and gear and
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lenses, but today I'm here to talk about weather sealing yourself. As you can tell, I live in a
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place here in Canada where I get lots of winter. This year, winter arrived by about mid-November
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and it'll probably be somewhere around mid-April by the time that it leaves
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And so as a byproduct of that, I've had to learn how to cope with extreme cold and winter conditions
0:36
if I'm going to continue to be a photographer, and if I'm going to continue to do the reviews that I do for all of you
0:42
So here today I'm going to talk to you a little bit about how to cope with shooting in winter
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both from the aspect of practical ways of dressing and keeping warm
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but also with some clever gear ideas that can help you to not be miserable shooting this time of year
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So obviously the first and most important thing when it comes to the aspects of dress
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is the importance of keeping a few key areas warm. Starting at your feet, I use boots
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They're not pretty, they're not sexy, but they're rated for minus 30 Celsius
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And so I help to keep my feet warm and dry in those. And often I'll go out for several hours walking through deep snow
1:22
and taking photos and my feet will stay warm during that time
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Wearing good socks obviously is also important. I typically wear pants that are like this
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They have nylon, I think, exterior that is essentially waterproof. And then they are lined on the inside and so it helps to keep my legs warm
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It's important to wear layers when you're going out. I like to wear a really close layer to my body
1:46
preferably something that's moisture wicking because one thing you don't want to do is work up a sweat
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and then start to have that sweat start to freeze because that really starts to deplete your body temperature
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And so I wear layers and to help with some moisture wicking is a part of that
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Then also it helps that if you happen to get your core temperature up, you start to get warm
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you maybe can remove a layer or two and kind of acclimate to the actual conditions that you're in
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I find that as far as coats go, using something that has down in it, it's really the warmest thing
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I remember growing up, everybody was all about leather coats. The reality is leather is not very warm
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But these coats, again, while they're maybe not the most haute couture garments out there, they are very warm
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And so if you want something that not only will break wind, but will also hold your body temperature in, body heat in, then something like that is really important
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It's also important to wear a hat of some kind, some kind of head thing, because you lose a lot of your body heat through your head
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And of course, the less hair you have, the more important that becomes
3:00
And so I don't know what they call it in your country. Here in Canada, these are called toques
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And so anyway, but wearing something like that is important for keeping your head and your ears warm
3:11
Sometimes I'll add a scarf into the mix as necessary, but along your neck is another key area where heat will escape
3:18
Good gloves are important. I'll talk to you more about that from a gear perspective in just a moment
3:22
Obviously, I'm wearing gloves right now that will allow me to access finger and thumb
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They're specifically for photography and so that I can operate the camera
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and then I can hide away the finger or the thumb and keep it warm in the interim period
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I also, a lot of times, will wear sunglasses that are either nearly clear or in this case
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kind of a orange color that actually raises light rather than blocks it for a couple of reasons You can get some snow glare out even on an overcast day like this The other thing however is that a
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lot of times you'll have blowing snow or little ice pellets, ice livers, and if
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you aren't covering your eyes with something it gets pretty miserable after a while and so I typically will wear something like this as well. One final
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tip before we jump into the gear aspect but just from a shooting perspective
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Most of the time when I'm out shooting in the woods, as I do most of the year, I will actually, if anything, I will bias exposure by underexposing by about a third stop
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I just find that it gives me more pleasing images, a little more punch and contrast
4:27
In the winter, I actually do the opposite. And the reason for that, if you're shooting in AV mode in particular, or if you're just using your camera's meter in some way
4:36
is that the reflection of all of the light off of the snow tends to fool cameras into underexposing
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And so if you're using AV mode and shooting in a winter snowy scene
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I recommend that you actually bias your exposure value by at least a third stop, usually about a third stop is right, to overexpose
4:57
overexposed because that will typically get you back more to a neutral type exposure
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And so those are some of the basic tips in terms of gear and staying warm out there
5:06
Let's take a look at some of the gear aspects that can help you also to stay warm and to
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get the most out of your gear in winter type conditions. So the first and most important area to consider when you're shooting out in the cold is about
5:19
your hands. I mean, obviously, if your hands get cold and stiff, you're becoming capable of actually
5:24
operating the camera, which, you know, becomes somewhat pointless then at that point. And I have
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had issues in the past where I have gotten a little bit of frostbite into my fingers, fortunately
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not enough to do permanent damage, but enough where I was still having some numbness and issues
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you know, a month or two later. And so first thing I want to show you is these free hands gloves. Now
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I'll throw a link to these down below there. I find a very reasonably priced for the amount of
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functionality there but these do have a thin solid lining in them and of course they have an
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outer shell that is you know water resistant and so it'll help to keep your hands dry kind of key
6:04
thing for photography here is that there is a there is an opening on both your finger and thumb
6:11
and then magnetic kind of class to hold those open and out of the way it's what that of course
6:17
allows you to do is to actually operate the camera. And I've tried, you know, sometimes you
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can buy gloves that have a kind of a touch sensitivity, maybe for your smartphone. Most of
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you that have tried those things know that they're just, they're not precise enough. They're just
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they're more frustrating than anything. And so this is a better alternative. Now, the only downside
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to these is that, you know, you do have to kind of play with it a little bit. And so that actually
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sits back under again. Otherwise you have a bit of a gap where you're getting cold
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but these will certainly help to keep your hands warm and to further augment that here is a second
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thing that I want to show you now I mean I don't know that you would even be able to find this
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particular brand this is from a Canadian store but you can find an equivalent in a lot of different
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places and what this is is that it's kind of a hybrid device in this case it's actually it can
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be a little bit of a power bank but what it will also do is that you have a couple of modes where
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where it will actually use that same energy to emit heat. And so, I mean, and here I can turn it up to a higher level
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So what I do with these, and you can find probably another kind of battery power
7:28
rechargeable hand warmer, is that rather than trying to put these into a glove
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or something which I tried doing something like that before and it kind of they don fit very well in most of them But what I do is I put these into the pockets of my coat that I wearing And so what that does
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is it means that in the times when I put my hands, you know, in gloves, when I put my hands down into
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the pockets, that there's actually already warmth there. And so rather than having to have a period
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of time where the natural, you know, body heat begins to create warmth, there's already warmth
8:00
there. And so it helps that my hands stay warmer all the time. And so I can kind of go quickly in
8:06
and out to shooting without so much downtime in between. So certainly something like this can make
8:11
a huge difference. And I found that once I started to utilize that, it made my actual shooting a whole
8:16
lot more comfortable. Another thing to consider, of course, is how you're going to transport
8:21
your camera. There's a lot of different options for that. This is the everyday sling bag from
8:27
from Peak Design. I use this bag all the time, but part of why I like it for what I'm looking at
8:34
here today is that, I mean, if you're carrying a smaller system, you can obviously carry multiple
8:38
lenses as well. But let's just say that you're wanting to carry just one significantly sized
8:43
camera. There's enough room to carry a pretty big combination down inside here. You can easily bring
8:49
this around to access it. And the whole outer shell of this is weather sealed. And so rather
8:56
than having to pull out a rain hood as a lot of bags rely on, which obviously is a pain if you're
9:02
going to actually continually get at your gear, this is a much better situation for what I'm doing
9:08
in that I can quickly access my gear and not worry about a rain hood because the whole thing
9:15
is in fact weather sealed. So that's one extra that I like there. Now in particular, if you are
9:21
working from a tripod, here's something that may be a serious asset for you. And this is really
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particularly true if you are maybe a wildlife type photographer, you're going to be spending
9:30
some time in a stable position and you want to keep your camera protected and also yourself
9:36
protected somewhat. And so this is a Rugard, it's a DSLR parka. And so a kind of a cool thing here
9:42
So obviously what you do is you put your camera, I've got a 5D Mark IV inside there right now
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So I'll show you some of the outside things before we actually go around to operate it. so here towards the front you obviously have the ability to have your lens mostly covered
9:58
with that and you know and I could take that even further the main thing you're going to want to
10:02
watch for is to make sure that these once you've tightened them down are not hanging in front of
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the lens itself for obvious reasons but you can essentially almost completely protect your camera
10:13
in there you even have the option there is a top pouch here and all of this is padded and so it has
10:21
a lot of insulation value to where you can actually still access the top of the camera
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You could even mount a flash there, or in this case, you could have that flat folded over to
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make sure that no moisture is getting down to there. Obviously, you have a clear window in
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which you can see your camera and see what you're going to be doing with your hands
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Now, the cool thing about with your hands is that you're accessing from the side. And so you're
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putting your hands in there almost like an old woolen muff or something. And so you can get in
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there. You can operate your camera. You can get at the various functionality. You can use it and
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you can do all of this with a lot of insulation value. I mean, this is basically like a thick
11:03
heavy coat here. So it keeps your hands warm while inside there. You can operate the camera
11:09
You can do what you need to do and obviously have some protection there and making that a
11:13
much more comfortable process. You also have another zippered pouch here on the bottom. So
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Obviously, if you're operating off of a tripod, you could have it mounted the tripod mounted there and coming up through that It also is an easy way to get your camera into that And so you know a pretty clever thing if and again it it much
11:35
more practical if you're working from a fixed position off of a tripod, but if that fits your
11:39
needs, this is one way to, I mean, you can actually, if you're using this, you can actually
11:45
just keep your hands maybe in your pockets and then just slip them in there when you're going
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to operate the camera because once they're in there there's a tremendous amount of warmth and
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that's also obviously going to protect your gear for when you're operating at very cold conditions
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and so a clever device I think it's around 80 bucks or so so it's not cheap but certainly
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if you're working in that kind of scenario it could be a big difference maker for you
12:10
Now there's one other gadget that I want to show you that can be really useful I use it
12:14
sometimes if I'm shooting long exposures or time lapses in winter because it gives you remote access
12:20
to the camera. And so, for example, if I was shooting a bulb mode long exposure here, what I
12:27
could do is once I have actually started that, I could be in a remote location, you know, like in a
12:33
warm car, for example, or somewhere out of the elements. And I can see actually see the countdown
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of how long my exposure is going for on the camera itself
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And so once I've completed the desired length, I press it again and it's finished taking the actual photo
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You can also set it up for a variety of different modes just as a typical remote release
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say if you wanted to be in the frame, you can all set it up as an intervalometer
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and so you're programming how long you want it to go. Now, the way that this works, it's actually a cold shoe
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so it's not operating from that, but this connection cord connects into the remote release
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on your particular camera. You obviously can get this with a connection cord for a number of
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different cameras. So for example, in this case, this would be one that would work for a Sony
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an interface with a Sony. And so, I mean, it's another thing that can be a saver if you're in
13:31
extremely cold conditions, you want to get a shot, but you don't want to just stand there in the cold
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while you're shooting a long exposure or an interval type shot. And so the Velo Wireless Shutter Boss is certainly another tool
13:44
that you might be a bit of a lifesaver for you if you're shooting in those kinds of conditions
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So fortunately, we live in a day where there's a lot of cool gear
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that can help you to cope. And over the years, as I've been kind of exploring these things
13:57
as I mentioned, I did have one point where I did get some frostbite
14:02
and it was actually when I was shooting the review for this lens, which makes it appropriate. Not this particular lens, because I bought my own copy later
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but when I was shooting a review for the Tamron 15-30mm f2.8, I was out in about minus 40 degrees
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which is minus 40, whether it's Celsius or Fahrenheit, on a frozen river early in the
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morning getting shots, and I overdid it, and my fingers were numb and stiff for a long time
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and so I learned I've got to do a better job of keeping my hands warm, and so I've been more
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proactive about that and hopefully my accumulated experience over spending so much time out in conditions like this can help you when you're dealing with
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them of your own. I'm Dustin Abbott. If you'll look in the description down below I've got links to a lot of this different gear. If you'd like to purchase
14:51
it for yourself you can take a look at that. On top of that you can find the
14:55
typical links to become a patron or to sign up for my newsletter and if you
15:00
haven't already, please click that subscribe button right here on YouTube. Thanks for watching. Have a great day and stay warm
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