Tips for Spring Photography

While I understand that there are parts of the world that do not have distinct seasons, where I live in Canada, the seasons are distinct and spring is a favourite of mine. I can ride my motorcycles again, and I don’t have to endure ice and cold when photographing, nor do I get to endure high temperatures and gross humidity. I do have to remind myself though, that my best spring images happen when I am wet.

Ask any professional landscape or outdoor floral photographer and they will tell you that the best light is during a light rain, or after a heavier rain. To get this light, you and your gear are going to get wet.

You Come First

Let’s deal with you first. I will always recommend a jacket and trousers made of GoreTex or some similar waterproof but breathable material. You will be rained on, you will kneel on wet ground and if really dedicated you may lie down. Your footwear should provide sufficient tread to avoid slipping and also be waterproof. Again GoreTex or equivalent is optimal. Get a jacket with a hood. There’s nothing to put you off faster than water running down the back of your neck. Buy a size larger so you can layer if needed. Avoid cotton wherever possible as once it gets wet, it stays wet. Wool socks and light wool gloves (or lightweight GoreTex motorcycle gloves) are optimal. Put a synthetic towel around your neck under your top layer.

Gear

Now that you are dressed, it’s time to get your gear together. Be minimalist. Get your kit down to as little and as light as possible because you will be walking and changing position a lot. A carbon fibre travel tripod with a good ball head rated to hold more than the weight of your camera and heaviest lens makes sense. You can get inexpensive units or superb professional units, just be sure that the leg set is carbon fibre and and that the ball head moves smoothly and permits easy small adjustments. I always recommend Really Right Stuff products but I acknowledge that they are not inexpensive, but in lightweight tripods and ball heads, you do get what you pay for. To get a superb lightweight carbon fibre tripod and ball head as a ready to go kit, consider this Gitzo 1545T kit.

I am going to presume that you have read your camera manual and practiced with it on the couch enough so that you can change settings without a struggle. Be sure to know how to set exposure compensation easily as well as flash exposure compensation, in addition to the usual suspects of shutter speed, aperture and ISO. While you may not ever shoot in manual mode, knowing where the controls are for everything is necessary for success.

Settings

Choose one of the matrix type metering modes and set it. You will use the electronic viewfinder or the LCD to check your exposures in the field and make adjustments in real time. Set a focus point mode that you know well and trust. For me, that is always the centre single point. I decouple autofocus from the shutter release and only use the back button model. I set focus, recompose and squeeze, or FRS. You should do what you feel comfortable with so long as you make absolutely certain that the most important part of your subject and story is sharp.

While stabilization is a very nice function, don’t depend on it. You are better raising your ISO to ensure a safe hand hold able shutter speed than betting on the machine. In a great image, no one cares about noise, and in most cases at proper viewing distance, noise does not even appear. If you have in lens stabilization. turn it off when the camera is on a tripod.

A Flash Will Make for Better Images

Make sure that the batteries in your hotshoe flash are fresh or fully charged, and put a spare set in your pocket. A flash that is used for fill will make all manner of positive changes. If you fear flash, set it to TTL and Flash Exposure Compensation to -1 and use it whenever your shutter speed would fall below your camera’s flash synchronization speed. You will know this because you will have read your manual. If you do not yet have a TTL capable flash for your camera, buy a Godox TT685ii. Follow this link and then pick the model that matches your camera brand. You can certainly spend more, but to be blunt, you are wasting your money.

If you are really concerned about hot spotting from on camera flash, use a bounce head flash and fire it into a light shaper of some kind. For space and efficiency, I use the MagMod system with the MagBounce 2 or in the case that you do not have a MagMod, get this starter kit with the mount, a grid and the Magsphere 2 Dome.

Protecting Your Gear

To protect your gear, keep it in a water resistant bag that holds your gear and nothing more. As in cameras and lenses, waterproof is a term that has become far too elastic, so beware anything that claims to be completely waterproof. Weight is the enemy of success, keep it simple photographer. Over the years I have come to the point where I admittedly have too many bags, but the ones that I own are all from ThinkTankPhoto. I have never found a better product. Moreover, most all of them include a waterproof cover if the bag itself is not waterproofed. The company even makes what they call “emergency rain covers”. They are in fact great, but I find that a box of clear garbage bags from the local store is perfect because I can easily fit them to any camera with any lens or battery grip and then use an elastic band to hold it on the edge of the lens with an elastic band after poking a hole for the lens hood to fit through. Keep it simple photographer. Plus I can dispose of the bag safely when it reaches the state of unusable. Also they pack down really small.

A little rain or condensation will not hurt anything. I keep a few microfibre cloths in the bag to wipe off the front element if it gets drops on it, and to wipe down the camera. While most products are water resistant or weather sealed, this does not mean waterproof. Water is bad for electronics, so if you and your gear do get caught in a deluge, dry it off as best you can before it goes in the bag. Dampness may negatively impact touch screens so be sure you know how to operate your camera if the touchscreen becomes unusable.

Relax and Make Images That Matter

While it may be cool, damp or wet, take your time. There is no point making hundreds of photos only to find that they are all unusable. Only squeeze the release when you have something worth having, and never shoot the same thing more than once the same way unless you are trying different exposures. Always remember that with a digital camera, if you will make an exposure shift, it is always better to overexpose than underexpose, whether shooting in RAW or JPEG as there is simply more data if you have to darken the image after the fact. If what you see doesn’t grab you, move on to find something that does. There’s no point in making images that don’t create some emotional reason to make them.

Spring is a great time to photograph and while there will be beautiful sunny days, remember that the best light is right after a rain, or during a light rain shower.

Thanks for reading. If you shop at B&H Photo Video, please use the link on the home page or the specific links in the article. It costs you no more, and we get paid a small commission on anything that you buy which helps us along. For The Photo Video Guy, I’m Ross Chevalier and until next time, peace.