Outdoor winter portrait

[joe_nash1]

I have a request by some family members to shoot a family portrait for them. I

have some Kodak Porta 160NC or 400NC I was thinking about using. Depending on

the lighting situation, I was going to use fill flash as well. They are

caucasion, there is snow on the ground, I will be using my Canon T90. Any

suggestions? I plan on bracketing exposures. Thanks in advance.

[craig_shearman1]

With winters being overcast and the light range from just soft to dreary, I would definitely plan on using fill flash to brighten things up and add some sparkle. I would stick with the 160 so that the shutter speed will be within the sync limit for your camera. Keep in mind that snow can trick your meter; probably best to take an incident reading or, if you don't have an incident meter, to meter off a gray card.

[smeitner300]

The cold weather will increase the natural pink tones in the skin. This can be an issue for certain people. I think your choice of 160NC is a good one. A gold reflector might come in handy as well. Just some thoughts...

[richard f harris]

I would stick to the wedding photographers standard (but you can always bracket around it) For normal shooting give a flash at 1 1/2 to 2 stops below the main exposure. This will give sparkle to the eyes without casting shadows everywhere. But, if you have strong sunlight around then keep it behind the subject, meter for the strongly lit background and flash to match the background exposure. If you are out of the direct sun then your exposures and contrast should not be a problem the snow is one massive reflector. If you flash light the subject more than the ambient or background they will jump out like dreamworks puppets; Interesting but not very nice. I would try to use a saturated film for most snow pictures, I think portrait emulsions can look muddy against white snow. That said I use Fuji and I don't rate their portrait stuff much even though I use it all the time. Reala and or Superia 100 would be better choices from the fuji stable. Kodak 400UC is lots of peoples favourite.

[joe_nash1]

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions. This being an unpaid session, with an explanation as such to my inlaws, will be a great learning situation.