Mark Cassino Photography

Some snow crystals are almost clear, and when photographing them getting enough contrast can be a problem. Wilson Bentley - the grand daddy of snowflake photography - actually scraped the emulsion off the film, following the contours of the snowflake in the photograph, to enhance the contrast of his images. That was 75 years ago. Today, I start with a high contrast film - like Fujichrome Velvia or Kodak E100VS - and, if need be, tweak the contrast a bit while scanning. These fine grained slide films can be unforgiving when it comes to getting the right exposure, but the results are worth it.