Southern Manitoba Photographer Creates Cinematic Snowy Photograph

Pembina Valley photographer captures snowy couples portrait with umbrella

As a southern Manitoba photographer, sometimes we don’t have the absolute best of landscapes to photograph. Sometimes we have to create something out of literally nothing.

With a bit of snow coming down, I’ve wanted to create a shot like this for some time. I tried about a year back in the rain with not so great results. With lots of research and learning, I figured I’d be more prepared this time.

I set up a flash about 10 feet behind us aiming back towards the camera. The purpose of this is to light up the snow and give a bit of a rim light on us as well.

There is a second flash right beside me pointed up into the “umbrella”. The umbrella is really my softbox which I use to create better, softer light. The image right out of the camera is below.

While this looks OK, clearly it needs to be tweaked and edited to really bring out the details. Below is an example of how much detail is available if I need. Cameras are incredible to capture all of that information and have it available to recover in post-processing. As you can see, the background isn’t exactly amazing. This is where knowledge of flash photography is so valuable to create something out of literally nothing.

I started with raising the exposure to get our skin tones to the level of brightness I want.

This is quite close to the finished product. From here I add some editing just to our faces to brighten them up slightly. Lastly I edit just the LS and RS of the frame to get a bit more blue and to recover a bit of the shadows. This allows the snow to become more visible as well.

If you’re into cinematic photography like this and want to learn more, head over to my CONTACT page and let’s chat about how I can create something memorable and special for you! I don’t think there’s a southern Manitoba photographer who creates images quite like I do.

Also, check out this recent post from a recent Pembina Valley wedding as I photographed my couple against the Morden, Manitoba sign in a unique way!

And if you are planning a wedding in the Pembina Valley, you MUST check out the free PEMBINA VALLEY WEDDING ULTIMATE GUIDE I’ve created!