victor_hooi Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 heya, I originally posted a similar question to this to the Travel Photography forum, but I nobody there could really answer it (except for one guy, and only very briefly - although they were quite helpful with metering help), so I'll post it here, if it's ok with you guys. (btw, i am definitely not a particularly skilled photographer, and not that experienced either). Basically, I'm going down to Threbdo (Australia) for 4 days next week, and I figured I'd lug my newly-bought Minolta 800si and the 50mm 1.7 lens down there. I've also discovered a cache of Ilford HP5 (ISO 400), and some Fujifilm NPH (ISO 400) in my freezer. I was wondering if people here could offer their opinion on which of the two films to use for photographing snow-scenes? Does anybody here have any particular experience with photographing snow in BW? Does snow turn out particularly well in BW normally? (I've never tried, plus don't forget I'm inexperienced, so I might well commit every error under the sun...lol) How about people (eg skiiers/snowboarders) in snow? Also, how much latitude do you think I'd have on the Ilford? What value would you recommend I overexpose it by? Thanks, Victor Ps: Incidentally, this doesn't really belong here, and forgive me, but I might be photographing friends skiing/snowboarding. Would anybody with experience photographing them have advice on pre- focusing? (ie anticipating where they'll be?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gaius1 Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 The only helpful advice I have is, get a good-quality multicoated orange filter. It'll make the snow sparkle, and will increase the contrast of the sky with the snow. Without it you might end up with just plain white backgrounds, as the sky blows out the highlights. HP5+ has good latitude, but I don't know anything about how that body meters, so the only advice I can offer there is "bracket". It's unlikely to overexpose in those conditions, so +1 and a 1-stop bracket will give metered, +1 and +2 which should cover all possibilities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronald_moravec1 Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 Cross lit snow shows nice texture. Under dull sky conditions, you get white blobs that look awful. Meter the cross lit snow with no other objects in the pic, give 1.5 or 2 tops more exposure so it turns out white insted of grey. Meters are calibrated for mid grey scenes. Develope normally. Use your normal film speed setting. Over development is the worst thing you can do. Yellow, orange, and red filters will make the shadows darker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robert_grasing Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 For exposure, I would take a meter reading off someone's clothing, something about middle gray in value, and add 1/2 stop to be sure. HP5 has lots of overexposure latitude: far better to overexpose rather than to underexpose. If it is a bright, sunny day, a yellow filter should be enough to darken the sky and shadows for a 'natural' look. An orange will be fairly dramatic. However, I don't like to use a red in this situation: the sky can become very dark, almost black. Worse, the snow can become dull and flat: a red filter seems to remove the sparkle from snow. But if you have the filters, why not take a few pictures using each of them, as an experiment? I dislike a red filter for snow scenes, but you might prefer it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
conrad_hoffman Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 Don't underexpose and do bracket. Long ago, Ghislain Lootens suggested going with a two stop bracket, since one stop is barely enough to make a good difference in b&w. That sounds like a lot, but if the exposure has a one stop error to begin with, the two stop bracket puts you back within 1-stop again. The technique saves a lot of shots without burning up too much film, since only three shots gives usable results over about six stops. Another thing I've learned is to use my eyes. We have a lot of overcast weather here, and many times I've been disappointed that my prints don't have any graduation in the snow areas. I finally realized that the original scenes didn't have any either! If you can't see it, you probably can't photograph it. Try for that early morning and late afternoon light as suggested above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bernard_frank Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 I live in Canada, and I shoot snow scenes like four to five months a year. I found out that I prefered "contrasty" films, like Plus X or Acros, or Neopan 400 for more speed. Plus X, for one, is beautiful. Yellow or orange filters will help, but most of all, I hope you'll get plenty of sun. Overcast skies on snow make for dull pictures. Shoot early morning or late afternoon. And compensate anywhere between 1 and 2 stops. Better still, use incident light metering if you can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dstate1 Posted July 25, 2005 Share Posted July 25, 2005 Victor, you may want to skip the 400 asa films and go for a slower film like Acros or Plus-x. The grain in 400 speed films can make snow look like a pile of sand. Finer grain, higher sharpness films will capture the very fine surface texture of the Snow, IF you expose right and use a orange filter. The added benifit of the filter will be a darkening of blue sky, so you will get some dramatic contrast. Best wishes Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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