Snow-covered winter landscape with muted light, soft shadows on a snowy field

Winter is such a beautiful element in nature and something I enjoy photographing. However, it’s tricky since everything is more or less white. I once got asked how one can take moody photos in a white landscape. I believe this is the essence of the problem. When everything is white, things lose their contrast, which often helps us create atmosphere, depth to the photo, and show the form of the objects. But it doesn’t mean you couldn’t capture moody photos in snow.

Bare trees and dark branches contrasting against white snow under overcast sky.

Minimalistic winter scene with a dark creek winding between snowy banks.

Moody winter forest with deep shadows and bright snow contrast.

Often, moody photos are considered as darker images, so winter sets us a challenge here. First of all, I think moody images are much more than just darker versions of images. Can light images be moody? I think they can be! The mood is created from contrast. The contrast is a relationship between the light and the shadow. If you have very dark parts, close to the black, and then very light parts close to the white, you have a strong contrast in your image. When you make the light parts whiter and the shadow parts darker you get more contrast which is often considered a moody image. Still, the overall experience can be white and light.

Lit candles placed in forest creating warm contrast to cold white scene.

Close-up of warm candlelight in snow, evoking cozy mood.

Snowy woodland creek framed by dark wood elements and bright snow.

Don’t just pay attention to the snow, but find spots where white snow meets something dark. The snow actually offers us a great background for creating moody images because it limits the color palette of nature. Everything that snow touches is white, and the rest of nature looks automatically darker. The tree trunks, creek, and branches look almost black when they are surrounded by white snow. The environment offers you a lovely contrast, so all you need to do is capture that.

Pay attention to your props when you shoot outside in the snow. Create contrast with colors, textures, and symbols. Make things pop out from the snow. The contrast can also be other things than just contrast based on light. The snow is cold, so I took a set of candles to bring warmth to the image. Now there is a contrast of warm and cold as well. Not to forget that candles are symbols of a cozy mood, which just emphasized the mood I am looking for.

My best tips to capture moody images in a winter wonderland

This is what I pack for an outdoor photoshoot