This week it’s finally stopped raining and the weather has turned cold. Instead, it’s been snowing with temperatures dropping sharply overnight. I love these conditions for photography. Early morning frost and a covering of snow can transform even a dull landscape. But you can get even better light for photography when you venture out in the snow, especially if the snow is only a heavy shower.
Here’s a shot from earlier in the week which I already shared on my Instagram. Although it didn’t receive many likes, I personally love it.
This is from the farm at the top of our village. You can see the farm with its wind turbine on the left in the distance. Usually, this view is an unattractive, muddy field but the snow has transformed it. You can also see some snowflakes frozen by the shutter speed whilst the snow clouds have created interesting light.
I shot this using my Fuji XT3 with the Fuji 18-135 lens at around 21mm. This lens really has become my go-to lens for walking around with the Fuji. I wouldn’t be without it and the image quality is excellent when I process the RAW files with Capture One.
The exposure was captured handheld at 1/320” using f/11.0 and ISO160. I also made a few minor adjustments using the Nik Collection.
This Weeks Video
Talking about the Nik Collection, this week’s video explains how to add and use Photoshop Plugins like Nik to Affinity Photo. It’s something that seems to cause Affinity Photo users a lot of pain, so I wanted to help address the issues. One of the biggest problems is the change in the folder structure used by Photoshop. Adobe changed this in Photoshop 2019, and it’s been causing confusion ever since.
If you want to know where your Photoshop Plugins are and how to access them from Affinity Photo, watch my video.
Software Upgrades
Something else that happened very recently is that Affinity Photo 1.9 was released. This generated a lot of email asking if my latest book was still valid and does it need to be updated. The short answer is yes, it’s still valid and no it doesn’t need to be updated. But if you want to know the full story as well as get some interesting background on photo editing software, I published this article. I’m sure (having read some of the emails I received) this article will be an eye-opener for a few people and could even save them money.
Anyway, enough for now. I think I’ve shared sufficient to keep you occupied.
I hope you like the image and enjoy the weekend.
The Lightweight Photographer 
I wonder whether part of why you love this image is because, in your mind’s eye, you simultaneously ‘see’ the mud that is usually there? Whereas the viewer can only see what the camera saw?
I don’t think so. It’s the light the dark, bleak, harsh conditions I like.
Hi Robin – you have intrigued me, but there is no link to your Software Upgrades reference!
That’s off. It’s there in the Word document but appears to have been stripped out when I copied it across. I’ve just added it to the article. Thanks for pointing it out.
Many thanks (I had also just found it on your website, but the link is very helpful).
Thanks Robin,
I look forward to your Capture One (Fuji) ruminations.
I realise that this program would finally take me into digital processing. As a b&w darkroom printer 8 have to admit to being less than enamoured by digital printing so far…….!
Digital is a skill you need to learn, just like darkroom. Too many people see digital as an easy option but it isn’t, at least not if you want to achieve great results. You see the results from digital quicker but it still takes a long time to learn and even longer to master. Keep pushing ahead and keep learning.
Hi Robin.
I also can’t find the link to the article that you alluded to….
Sorry, I found articles link “this article.”
Great. I hope you enjoy it.
It’s a nice image Robin, I know what you mean. Of course its not a chocolate-box colour spectacular that gets the IG likes but sometimes the simplicity of what we see at a moment in time is very satisfying. Lockdown has limited me to strolls in local fields but it has been a delight and a challenge to find and capture images within essentially unspectacular landscapes and conditions. And, in the end, you only have to be pleased with them yourself, your best critic.