If snow falls on the ground and no one sees it on Instagram, did it really happen?
The answer to that question is a firm \u201cNo\u201d, much to the chagrin of social media users around the United Kingdom today. There will be no flurry of Likes to accompany today\u2019s flurry of snow, as one by one we each realise it is damned impossible to take a good picture of falling snow on our phone cameras.
A photo posted by Mam\u00e1 2.0 (@mama2punto0) on Jan 13, 2017 at 4:55am PST
The question is, why?
\u201cAll photography is dependent on light irrespective of camera type,\u201d says Matthew Hawkins, a senior lecturer in photography at The University of the Arts, London. \u201cSnowflakes usually fall in times of low contrast and relatively low levels of light.
\u201cThis increases the duration of exposure which becomes too long to freeze the motion of an inherently translucent flake.\u201d
So it seems that, provided you\u2019re not trying to shoot on a Nokia 3310, it might not actually be your phone that is the problem. In recent years phone cameras have become incredibly advanced, and the World Photography Organisation even has awards for mobile phone photos.
That said, phone cameras are obviously less advanced than expensive, professional DSLRs, and a lot of digital cameras actually have a \u201csnow mode\u201d, designed to help with the lighting issues that occur when photographing bright, white snow. „Snow scenes generally tend to come out underexposed, so exposure compensation (adding more stops) is usually needed and the automatic settings within a phone camera don’t compensate for this,“ says James Jones , a freelance photographer.
Lauren Winsor, a photography lecturer at Kingston University, adds: \u201cThe shutter simply isn\u2019t quick enough to freeze the majority of falling snow. It\u2019s therefore either lost to near invisible motion blur or rendered as inelegant white, out of focus blobs.\u201d
Given that your iPhone is currently trying to catch up with a theatre mode , it\u2019s no wonder that it\u2019s not really designed for the complexities of snow.
But if \u2013 as Hawkins says \u2013 these problems occur with fancy cameras as well as your phone, then why are your snow photos so underwhelming?
The answer to the question might actually be the answer to life\u2019s many questions: you\u2019re just not very good.
A photo posted by kayleepaterson94 (@ironcreature94) on Jan 12, 2017 at 6:13am PST
When I ask Lewis Bush, a photography lecturer (who is currently working on a project that uses satellite imagery for another perspective on the refugee crisis ), why it\u2019s so hard to capture a good picture of falling snow, he says it\u2019s isn\u2019t \u201cif you know how\u201d.
Multiple online guides have sprung up to help you get this knowledge, and Paul Moore, of iphonephotographyschool.com offers eight tips for the perfect wintery photo. \u201cDepending on the light and the weather, snow can take on different color hues or even end up a dull gray color,\u201d he writes, advising that it can instead be fixed in editing. A simple black and white filter or a photo editing app can change everything.
And while you\u2019re here, what about nature\u2019s other trickiest photography subject, the humble moon? Bush has advice for any amateur phone photographers looking to capture the big cheese. \u201cThe moon is hard, so shoot with manual exposure controls if your phone has them, you could also try using telephoto adaptors that clip on to your phone camera or even borrowing a telescope and shooting through it,\u201d he says.
But if the snow continues to fall and you can’t afford a swanky camera, what on earth should you do next?
\u201cShoot towards something dark,\u201d says Bush. \u201cWhite snow isn\u2019t like to appear very well on a white background, and use a flash if it\u2019s dark.
\u201cAlso, maybe question whether the world really needs more photographs of snow?\u201d
Each video starts the same way: with a disclaimer.
\u201cI\u2019m not in any way trying to brag,\u201d says beauty vlogger Fleur De Force in her \u201cWhat I Got For CHRISTMAS 2016!\u201d video, before speaking for 13 minutes about her Christmas presents, which include a \u00a3209 dress, \u00a3220 earrings, and \u00a3805 ankle boots. Some variation of these words are uttered in the videos of YouTubers, big and small, who showcase their yuletide gifts for the world to see each year.
\u201cI\u2019m not doing this to show off my presents at all,\u201d says vlogger Tanya Burr in her 2014 video (presents of note: a \u00a3180 duck egg Roberts radio and a \u00a3300 Kitchen Aid mixer). But if YouTubers aren\u2019t creating \u201cWhat I got for Christmas videos\u201d to brag or to boast, why are they doing it?
Burr\u2019s answer is simple. In that very same video she explains: \u201cI\u2019m doing this because so many of you have requested it\u201d. This is the first and most important defence of the conspicuous consumption on display in these clips. \u201cWhat I got for Christmas\u201d videos have been widely requested by YouTubers\u2019 fans since the tag began in the late Noughties, and are hardly causing the commercialisation of Christmas so much as reflecting it.
\u201cI do get why people are horrified by the onslaught of perfectly-presented beauty and lifestyle gurus talking about all the designer things they got for Christmas,\u201d says Lex Croucher, a lifestyle vlogger with over 129,000 subscribers, \u201cbut I still actually enjoy watching all types of haul videos.\u201d
Sophia Grace via YouTube
Croucher no longer makes any haul videos herself, as her channel now focuses less on beauty and fashion and more on her vegan lifestyle, politics, and comedy. Her conflicted response to Christmas hauls \u2013 that they can be at once jarring but also incredibly entertaining \u2013 reflects the complexity of the situation.
Gemma Tomlinson, a blogger and vlogger with over 88,000 subscribers, has similarly nuanced opinions. She no longer makes Christmas hauls since switching to cruelty-free beauty products and attempting to make more ethical choices about her purchases, but is unsure as to whether vloggers are directly fuelling the rise of Christmas consumerism.
\u201cI definitely think these types of videos have a place, it\u2019s mostly escapism and can also be informative for people as they might spot things they like themselves,\u201d she says. \u201cI do think it can fuel comparison and an addiction to materialism but so does our society in general, I suppose. The fact of the matter is these videos get lots of views, so vloggers will make the content the audience demands.\u201d
For YouTubers, more views mean more money, so it is possible that Christmas haulers are not acting entirely altruistically in fulfilling their fan\u2019s fancies. Yet whilst it is unfair to criticise YouTubers for making money in this way (everyone has to eat, after all), some vloggers go further to legitimately profit from their \u201cWhat I got for Christmas\u201d videos. Underneath Fleur De Force\u2019s video , for example, is a list of links as to where her viewers can purchase the presents on show. Each link is affiliated (you can tell because they have been shortened, and when you click on them the URL redirects via ShopStyle, who run an affiliate program) \u2013 meaning she directly profits every time it is clicked. YouTubers are legally free to use these affiliate links without disclaiming or disclosing that they profit from them, but many feel it is better, ethically, to tell their young viewers when they are doing so.
YouTubers must, however, disclose when they have been paid by a brand to feature a product in their video as an advertisement deal, and some are rumoured to charge up to \u00a320,000 to feature a single item in their videos. The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) ruled in 2014 that vloggers must feature the word „ad“ in a video\u2019s title or thumbnail if the video was a paid-for advert by a brand, ending an era of misleading advertisements. Since then, however, some YouTubers have got around this by accepting sponsorships instead of advertisement deals (the difference is that they do not have a script to follow, and that the ASA does not regulate sponsorships). This means that, without breaking any ASA rules, YouTubers can accept money from brands to stealthily market their products.
Claudia Sulewski via YouTube
This makes it hard to tell if any of these \u201cWhat I got for Christmas\u201d videos contain sponsorships. In this way, the videos are a perfect end to Vlogmas \u2013 the advent period in which YouTubers film a video every day before Christmas, often featuring an abundance of products about which they wax lyrical. Being unsure whether a YouTuber is sponsored or not can make viewers doubt their authenticity. Is it a coincidence that so many vloggers seem to fall in love with the same supermarket from autumn to Christmas time? Perhaps. Perhaps not.
Yet even without any brand deals behind them, are \u201cWhat I got for Christmas\u201d videos still problematic?
On the one hand, it can be disturbing to see thousands of pounds worth of presents on display, and on the other, when I bought a \u00a350 (\u00a350!) device that cleaned my make-up brushes this week, I found myself taking to social media to tell others about how good it is. Personally, my main reservations about the videos probably come from the fact that, as a child, I hated coming back to school and my friends asking each other about their gifts, only for them to reveal they got Playstations and ponies before the question turned to me and I awkwardly stuttered out, „Erm… a calendar. “ (Note, dad, if you’re reading: it was a great calendar).
Yet although it can be jarring to watch these parades of presents, the fact of the matter is \u2013 I and many other people still watch them. We are fundamentally nosy about other people\u2019s lives, and YouTubers are surely exhibiting some form of Christmas generosity by allowing us a peek into their own?
Still, it would be nice if these videos didn\u2019t come immediately after Vlogmas \u2013 which ends, for many YouTubers, on December 24 th. If a YouTuber or two could take the time out to remind their fans that yes, it was still Christmas this week, then perhaps that would combat the materialism on show. Either that, or they could lend me their \u00a3805 ankle boots. Please.<\/p>\n

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