Gear and techniques for photographing glaciers and other “icescapes”
Glaciers and ice formations, with their unique and ever-changing shapes, patterns and textures, offer photographers wonderful photographic opportunities. Due to weather, terrain and reflections, they also offer photographers unique challenges. In this article, I'll cover how to take advantage of those opportunities and how to deal with those challenges. To illustrate techniques, I'll share with you some of my "icescape" photographs. The opening image for this article was taken in a glacier bay in Iceland.
CLOTHING
You need to dress for success. If you're cold and wet, it's hard to maintain a good attitude toward photographing.
Waterproof gloves and hand warmers will keep your fingers nimble for operating your camera controls. Get the best gloves you can afford. Usually, as the price increases, so does the protection against the elements and flexibility. Specialized gloves for photographers are available that offer peal-back fingertips for operating small knobs and buttons on cameras.
In cold conditions, a warm jacket, preferably with inside pockets for keeping extra batteries warm and charged, is a necessity, as is a warm hat and waterproof pants. Note: Don't underestimate the importance of waterproof pants.
In addition to having these clothing items when shooting in cold conditions, it's essential to have warm socks and waterproof boots or waterproof overshoes. I like NEOS overshoes because I can hike around on dry land with my hiking boots, and then slip on my NEOS when I plan to get into the water, without having to remove my hiking boots.
Want to keep your toes extra-warm when shooting in cold conditions? Slip some toe warmers into your shoes. Hand warmers are available, too.
CAMERA COVERS
Where there's ice, there's usually rain, sleet or snow, all of which can be damaging to your camera and lens.
There are many different ways to protect your gear from the elements, ranging from a shower cap or a plastic sandwich bag to a camera cover that costs a few hundred dollars. Personally, I like to use the pliable plastic covers from Op/Tech USA. These covers cost about $10, and they protect your camera and lens, and offer easy access to camera controls.
Even if you use a camera cover, you still need a lens hood. It helps to keep water droplets off the front element of your lens or filter.
LENSES AND LENS SETTINGS
I'm often asked, "What's the best lens for icescape photography." I always respond, "It depends."
It depends on your creative vision and how close you are to the ice. My go-to icescape lenses are my Canon 17-40mm and 24-105mm IS lenses, but I have a 70-200mm lens for tight shots of distant ice formations.
Ninety-nine percent of the time, I shoot at a wide-angle lens setting because I want the entire scene in focus so my photograph looks as the scene appeared to my eyes. To get the maximum depth of field, set your lens at ƒ/16 or ƒ/22, and focus one-third the distance into the scene.
On the topic of lenses, keep a lens-cleaning cloth accessible so you can wipe rain, snowdrops and mist from the front element of your lens or filter. A tiny drop on your lens will look like a big blob in your photograph.
CAMERA BAGS
Because you may be walking through water in an ice field, you may not be able to put down your camera backpack or bag when you need to change lenses. So, it's best to have a backpack or shoulder bag that offers easy access to your gear.
Several bag manufacturers offer swing-around backpacks that provide fast and easy access to gear while you're standing, including Lowepro and MindShift Gear.
Use a polarizing filter
FILTERS
A polarizing filter, which I used when making this photograph in a glacier bay in Iceland, is a must for icescape photographs, especially when photographing on sunny days. A polarizing filter will reduce the glare on ice and help to prevent overexposed highlights. That said, sunlight glistening off the ice could look awesome in your photographs.
What to do? Shoot it several ways: one shot with the polarizing effect fully dialed in; one shot with the polarizing effect partially dialed in; and one shot without the filter. When you return home, you can choose which image/effect you prefer.
TRIPOD
In some situations, you'll need to place your tripod in the water to get a shot, as I had to do when photographing from glacier lagoons in Iceland. Some water may seep into your tripod's legs. If that happens, as soon as possible after your shoot, fully extend your tripod so the legs can dry out.
It's also a good idea to wipe down the legs of your tripod with a cloth—and use a cloth soaked in fresh water if you were shooting in salt water. Another idea is to shower with your tripod, which I've done after shooting in sandy conditions.
When extending the legs of your tripod, extend the shortest legs first. This will prevent silt and sand from getting in the joints between the larger legs.
If sand or silt does get in the joints, take apart your tripod (if you feel confident doing so) and clean the joints with a toothbrush. I recommend carrying an extra toothbrush just for this purpose.
Include foreground elements
COMPOSITION
Composition in icescape photography is the same as composition in any type of landscape photography. You want to decide what you want in the frame, as well as what you don't want in the frame. As a general rule, using a foreground element to add a sense of depth to an image is a good idea, as I did here when composing the photograph of grounded icebergs in Alaska.
If you can't get the exact composition you want, remember that cropping in the digital darkroom gives you a second chance at composition. You also may want to shoot the same scene vertically and horizontally because, on site, you may be so enthralled with the scene that you may not know which format best captures the scene.
Look for reflections
REFLECTIONS
Use reflections to add impact to your icescapes. You'll get the best reflections on calm days and when there's little movement in the water. Those were the conditions when I took this picture in Alaska.
When composing for reflections, try not to cut off the top of the ice formations in the bottom of your frame. Use what I call "border patrol"—that is, run your eyes around the entire frame to make sure you're not cutting off important elements in your photograph.
CLOSE-UPS
Don't forget close-up and detail shots. They're cool, in and of themselves, but close-ups also add to slideshows and web galleries. When composing for close-ups, look for interesting patterns and shapes.
EXPOSURE
In most cases, you want to expose for the highlights—the brightest part of the scene. If the highlights are overexposed more than one ƒ-stop, it's hard to recover them, even for a skilled Photoshop or Lightroom expert.
Keep your camera's highlight alert/overexposure warning activated, and check your camera's histogram to make sure you don't have a spike on the right, which indicates blown-out highlights.
Try black & white
BLACK & WHITE
Icescapes can look awesome in black-and-white. You can create dramatic black-and-white images from color files in Photoshop and Lightroom and with plug-ins. No matter which program or plug-in you use, keep in mind that when working in black-and-white, contrast becomes very important, as do shadows and highlights, because we're not distracted by the color in a scene.
When in doubt, give your black-and-white images an extra kick of contrast.
HDR
Speaking of image processing, when the contrast range is strong between the ice and the sky, you may need to take a series of photographs for an HDR (high dynamic range) image.
When shooting an HDR sequence, you want to be sure your most underexposed image doesn't have any overexposed highlights, and make sure your most overexposed image doesn't have any blocked-up shadows.
Photoshop and Lightroom are now so powerful that you can create HDR-like images from a single file. However, it's still best to shoot a series of photographs.
FINAL TIP
When photographing on and near ice, move slowly and carefully. You don't want to slip and break your camera—or something even more valuable.
Rick Sammon is a longtime friend of this magazine. To see more of his work, check out his website at ricksammon.com.
