Shooting advice for snow

[zlm]

I'm soon going to be traveling to northern Minnesota for a short

skiing/photography trip. I'll be bringing my 10D, and was wondering

if anyone had some advice for getting nice exposure with snow. I'll

probably be shooting mostly forested/lakeside (Lake Superior

shoreline) stuff. Often, if just using the camera metering, there's

an unpleasant grey tone. I've found a few things with a Google

search, but thought someone here might have some advice. Thanks a

lot for any tips.

[btmuir]

Set your exposure compensation if you're using the in camera meter. Try between +1 and

+2 and check your LCD and histogram.

[ShunCheung]

I have suggested this article before: http://www.photosafaris.com/Articles/ExposingWhiteRight.asp

[niels olson]

Here's a photo from one of my sets on Flickr. The exif data indicates I

was manually controlling exposure and had my D100 set to f/11, 1/400 s,

ISO 640, colorspace was I (sRGB with neutral balance), the lens was a

20/2.8, and the white balance was auto. I was shooting with the setting

from 11 am to noon. Obviously there's a lot of blow-out but, that's the

objective in snow. I probably could have recovered a lot of detail by

1) stopping down a bit (no more than a stop though, given the colors

appear about right) 2) shooting in Adobe RGB, and 3) shooting in RAW.

One thing I've found is that telephoto lenses remove all context in

snow because they omit so much background. People end up appearing to

float in the whiteness. If at all possible shoot with a wide ange lens.

If you're shooting snow sports, be prepared to get scary close and have

the shutter set to fire continuously until the trigger is released. You

still have to pick that first shot, but you may be surprised by the

second or third shots you didn't have time to frame in the viewfinder.<div></div>

[salvatore.mele]

I shot lots of snow, mostly at high altitudes. I mainly shot in nice days, since those are no places to be when the weather is bad. Using a polariser to increase contrast with the sky, a centre-metered manual Fm2n, and film, I've developed a fast recipe I stick to without thinking too much. It is

discussed toward the end of <a href=

http://www.photo.net/photo/2224248>this thread</a>.

<p>

In short, I always try to achieve maximum polarization, with the sun at my side. First I polarise the sky and then back off a bit. Then I meter off the ground just below the horizon in front of me, and dial in +2 as compensation. Then, I check this exposure against the sky which should roughly OK.

[zlm]

Thanks for all the advice, hopefully I'll have some nice photos coming up to show from the trip!

[beaglefur]

Hi Zack. Two things I'd recommend.

 

#1, learn how to use exposure compensation. John Shaw covers this extremely well in his Nature Photography books, but there are other resources that explain it well too.

 

#2, shoot in RAW. Post-processing RAW images will give you a couple of stops of leeway for adjusting exposure levels on the computer.

 

Good luck and have fun skiing.

[Two23]

I find it depends on what's in the scene if I need any exposure compensation. If the view is mostly all white, then I will often add +1 stop. If there is some dark area in the center of the view, I find that my Nikon matrix meter usually gets it right. I'm thinking you won't need any compensation shooting in the woods if you use matrix. There is plenty of dark/light contrast there. Generally when I'm shooting in tricky snow conditions, I use an incident light meter and go with that. Otherwise, don't you use your histogram most of the time now?

 

 

Kentin SD