Small river north of Montreal, December.

It's probably wrong to ask this in a forum where most viewers will

be looking at this image on-screen, but hopefully it is close enough

to be useful. I'm really inexperienced w/ exposing for snow and I'm

having a hard time convincing myself that this is "right" (or

wrong!). I went with the camera's judgement and +0.7... This was

taken around sunset.

A little flat on the tones. A little darkroom work with Photoshop or next time, bracket the exposures and experiment to see how your camera handles the snow scenes. I don't think you are too far off on this. Also, be sure to set the white balance to match the lighting conditions. Some digital cameras AUTO feature works well, some don't.

Dennis is correct that the photo is a bit flat re tonality. A bit more contrast might help. Usually with snow and bright sand/beach scenes (Try white sands New Mexico sometime) you need exposure compensation in the +1.3 to +2 range. Don't be afraid of it, give it a try. AEB is usually available on most of todays cameras, if not go manual and twirl the aperture ring a couple of steps.

I will put forth a descenting viewpoint as far as contrast here. I think the contrast here is right on but for the snow being to dull and grey. Everything else is right on the money. What you failed to do and failed to mention is what was the contrast range of the scene to begin with? You need to know that before you can set the correct exposure. Here the exposure is a little flat but the camera handled it well considering it knows zip except that it was pointed at a light grey spot on something and so took an average exposure +.7. next time find out what the contrast rang3 in the scene is and compensate so the white comes out white and you still have a good black in the deep shadows. You decide not the camera. James

"you decide, not the camera". couldn't agree more - the answer to your question on "is this correct" is "is the snow as grey as you wanted it?"

 

white snow could be gray if you're going for dark and moody. white snow could be featureless white if you're going for stark and cold. i'm no expert, but i've read a bunch and while i can't create what i want to (yet), the brightness/darkness (or tone) of the snow is up to you to creatively decide.

 

Now, to try and be a bit helpful, imho, for this scene, i would have exposed a bit more - i think the snow is a bit grey for the feeling of this scene.

Having chatted with the photographer, I learned the image was made just AFTER sunset; so it may be that the scene is, in fact, rendered well for the initial conditions.