Request: Tips and advice on shooting in the snowy mountains

J

JackBayer

Well-known member
Hello everyone!

I am planning a shoot in the Austrian alpes in march.
It´ll be a freerider ski film (maybe 10 minutes long), you know...some ski pros jumping and skiing and chilling in fresh powder, or "dude, powder! fresh!" as they´d say.

I will be bringing basically every piece of equipment I got and my cams will be my GH1(3) and one GH2. Lenses as they are described in my signature, filters, glidecam, slider, jib, tripods, H4N with NTG-2 and so forth.

As I´ve never undertook something like this, I wonder if anyone of you might have some hard learned lesson to share, about gear, planning or those things I just can´t think of.

As always I am more than thankful for every piece of advice, so thanks!
 
You probably already know this, but when your camera meters light, it more or less wants everything to be 18% grey. As snow is more or less bright white, the tendency is for your camera to tell you to underexpose your footage in such an environment. You may want your meter to read as if it's overexposed by a stop or two to get the correct actual exposure. Check the histograms to be sure.
 
robotsound said:
You probably already know this, but when your camera meters light, it more or less wants everything to be 18% grey. As snow is more or less bright white, the tendency is for your camera to tell you to underexpose your footage in such an environment. You may want your meter to read as if it's overexposed by a stop or two to get the correct actual exposure. Check the histograms to be sure.
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good thinking! thanks.
 
I think I'll change my signature to "test, test, test"... really, try to shoot footage with your own gear and view it on a good monitor. Beyond the tech stuff you may find all sorts of things you wish you'd thought of for an extreme situation, from footwear to a black cloth for viewing to fogging issues, etc etc... test.
 
Michael Carter said:
I think I'll change my signature to "test, test, test"... really, try to shoot footage with your own gear and view it on a good monitor. Beyond the tech stuff you may find all sorts of things you wish you'd thought of for an extreme situation, from footwear to a black cloth for viewing to fogging issues, etc etc... test.
Click to expand...
Yes, that´s pretty much my approach.

It just got me thinking today, when I felt totally awesome because I was the one who first thought of buying a heating device for my skiing boots and one of the boarders immediately told me to gaffer tape over every hole of my boots unless I want melting water around my feet. unchartered lands!
 
There are also little heating thingies you can get at sporting goods stores to heat up your boots and gloves. It's been quite a few years, but basically they are in little plastic packages, and when you open them up there is some sort of chemical reaction that makes them toasty for a few hours. Those will make the difference between ice cold feet and icy feet with a nice pocket of warmth. No batteries required.

On a camera level, you may want to look into trying a polarizer filter to cut down glare from the snow. I also agree that the test, test, test mantra is entirely appropriate.
 
Thanks, I´ll look into those heating pads.

As for GoPros, I was asked by them to film especially because they don´t want to see any more gopro footage.

I´ll look up dendrite.
 
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