Capture the special moments.
During those long summer days, little joys come from scrolling through captured memories of the best days on snow. Having a backlog of photos that captured the magic of a powder day, a big day out with friends, or sunny cliff drops can help you tough it out to that next big powder day. But, not all of us have big fancy cameras that offer the refinements of professional photography. So, here are our best ski photography tips you can use on everything from an iPhone 5 that’s hanging on by a thread to your iPhone 15 Pro.
Ski Photography Tips
The Bunny Hill – Finding the right position
This tip doesn’t require messing with any settings. The foundation of a good ski shot is built with a solid positioning that gets a good view of the skier. Rather than skiing down and just aimlessly filming your skier ride down, it can help to coordinate with your skier. Communicate and let them know where you’ll stop, or find features to ask them to ski by.
Another good technique is to ski down to your ideal photo location, then check through the view of your camera to see the setting. See where you’d want the skier to come through ideally. Use features to let them know where they should ski. Or, use the oldest trick in the book and throw a snowball right where you want them to slide through. That helps you get the skier aesthetically lined up with the background or other features.
Cruising Greens – Lining up the light
This isn’t always possible, but having natural light makes a huge difference in photo quality. If you can have the sunlight hitting the model where you’re shooting, you’ll add a lot more definition and clarity to your subject.
When the sun is low and behind the subject, you can get some shadows cast across your frame. Of course, sometimes you can get a little “artsy” and use the sun behind a skier to play with lighting, but it can get a little tricky. You also might find some trouble finding strong contrast and clarity when the clouds are out. When in doubt, your best photos can come from bluebird days.
Solid Blues – Get your model to work
Half the battle of shooting skiing is working with a moving subject. No matter how much you set up the setting or lighting, if your skier is facing the wrong way, or looks static, the image loses some dynamism.
Use the old snowball trick from earlier. Have your skier ski to that spot, then take a turn towards you. Ski photos tend to look more dynamic and clear when the skier is facing you with their body more open towards the frame. You can see their expression, their ski style, and their kit! If they’re taking a turn away, you mostly get a shot of their back.
Black Diamonds – Check your exposure
Just like having good natural light, you want to capture the right light in the camera. Because snow is white and bright, it can fool your camera’s auto settings and come out more gray. You can fix that by increasing the exposure on your camera. Over-exposing the photo will adjust the way the photo is processed and make the snow look more accurate. This can help you navigate out of darker environments, too.
For phones, you can use the quick exposure setting on normal mode for a quick adjustment. For something more precise, you can further adjust exposure settings for more specific exposure.
The Steeps – Shutter speed
Since you’re dealing with moving targets, that can be difficult to catch on camera. That’s when faster shutter speeds come in. Even the little cameras installed on our phones can adjust the shutter speed in the advanced modes.
This can help shoot any kind of skiing but is especially handy for carving shots. When people are moving a little faster on open terrain, increasing the shutter speed will help you nail a clear shot. This is one you can play around with to dial in what settings work best for you and your models.
Hopefully, these ski photography tips give you extra tools in your pocket to help snag the best memories from the day. Dating app approved.
