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Snow shots
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Hi all,
Does anyone has some advice on capturing snow scenes well? Going skiing in a few days, got a D80 & VR 18-200mm recently and would regard myself as a beginner..certainly when it comes to DSLRS. So if ye have advice keep that in mind because i might not understand alot of tech terms…cheersThere is going to be alot of light reflecting from the snow and it will more than likely cause confusion to your cameras light metre. It will think it’s very bright so it will probably overexpose by a few stops. You can compensate this by deliberately underexposing by 2 or maybe 3 stops depending on the lighting condtions. DSLR’s cant cope as well trying to bring back blown highlights as well as they can by getting detail back from darker area’s. Just check your LCD and your histogram and make any adjustments that are necessary. Shoot in RAW mode as well to keep as much detail as possible.
great thanks, ill keep that in mind..hopefully i can post up some good results
pete4130 wrote:
There is going to be a lot of light reflecting from the snow and it will more than likely cause confusion to your cameras light metre. It will think it’s very bright so it will probably overexpose by a few stops. You can compensate this by deliberately underexposing by 2 or maybe 3 stops depending on the lighting conditions. DSLR’s cant cope as well trying to bring back blown highlights as well as they can by getting detail back from darker area’s. Just check your LCD and your histogram and make any adjustments that are necessary. Shoot in RAW mode as well to keep as much detail as possible.
Have to contradict you there Pete (sorry)! If we come back to basics and remember that a light meter will always give you a reading so as to reproduce a middle grey (i.e., 18% grey). So if you’re photographing something black the light meter in the camera doesn’t know it’s black and so will give you an exposure in order to reproduce it grey. In other words, it’s overexposing the black subject. Similarly when shooting something white, the light meter will also see that as grey and give you an exposure to reproduce it as such, i.e., it will underexpose.
So when shooting snow scenes, a camera’s meter will underexpose snow. Depending on the light conditions and the scene itself, you will probably have to compensate by giving and extra 1 (maybe 2) stops of exposure. Best thing is to use your histogram and as Pete says, shoot RAW.
I’m assuming you’re not using a handheld incident light meter, but the cameras internal meter. Readings from a hand held incident light meter will have to be treated somewhat differently in such circumstances.
Thorsten,
As I was writing my post, I paused and thought about it to myself and knew I was going to get it the wrong way around. I stand corrected…and made myself look foolish! Aplogies Asterix, I wasn’t trying to sabotgae your photos.Yes, Thorsten is correct. You will have to overexpose to prevent your snow being recorded as grey.
Also bear in mind that snow under broken cloud cover tends to go blue due to the blue light from the sky overhead. The problem is that if you try to correct it with a warm up filter, the areas under direct light will go overly warm. Just something to be aware of.
Also be careful of interpreting the histogram. High key images such as snow scenes will usually result in a histogram with the majority of the tones in the upper section. This doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve overexposed unless you are clipping the RHS. A well spread out histogram is generally NOT what you will want to see in snowy scenes.
Andy
pete4130 wrote:
Thorsten,
As I was writing my post, I paused and thought about it to myself and knew I was going to get it the wrong way around. I stand corrected…and made myself look foolish! Aplogies Asterix, I wasn’t trying to sabotgae your photos.Pete – it wasn’t my intention to make you look foolish. Just wanted to make sure the right information got across. And in fact, as I was writing what I wrote I thought twice about it, just to make sure. That’s always a good thing though – sometimes we can become too familiar with the basics and end up taking them for granted. You wouldn’t believe the amount of times I’ve made stupid mistakes that I shouldn’t have :D
Thorsten,
Sorry if that came across wrong, I didn’t intend for it to sound like you had made me seem foolish! It was my second guessing that got me confused in the first place :? My reference to sabotage was light hearted humour against myself, I didn’t mean for it give the wrong tone. I’m glad you did correct me!!!
From browsing the forum I know you always give great advice. I’m glad to hear that you had to think about it twice too :) and I know too well what its like to make the silliest mistakes due to taking the basics for granted. Sorry for any confusion with my post, I can see how it might have been misunderstood after re-reading it.pete4130 wrote:
Thorsten,
Sorry if that came across wrong, I didn’t intend for it to sound like you had made me seem foolish! It was my second guessing that got me confused in the first place :? My reference to sabotage was light hearted humour against myself, I didn’t mean for it give the wrong tone. I’m glad you did correct me!!!
From browsing the forum I know you always give great advice. I’m glad to hear that you had to think about it twice too :) and I know too well what its like to make the silliest mistakes due to taking the basics for granted. Sorry for any confusion with my post, I can see how it might have been misunderstood after re-reading it.Hey Pete – nothing to worry about!
Cheers,
Thorsten.
This is the most considerate post I’ve ever read. You are both true gents.
Andy
Seen as we’re being gents…. I was reading the post and for both you’re response I second guessed them both. When Thorsten mention the 18% grey it seem to make sense. Anyway, main thing is that we’ve learnt sometha from it all. Have to say Andy really confused me with the broken cloud and warm-up filter. That’s were the experienced guys know the ticks of the trade. Good mannered advise all round.
PS. Don’t forget to overexpose by 1-2 stops.
…since everybody is friens again :wink: …
I would like to add to consider to use a UV filter in some situations to get this fantastice steel blue contrasty sky!
I also would like to warn you to keep yor equipment in a safe place. Coldness kills battery power very quickly and the strong light and reflections due to the snow can harm your sensor!!Apart from that .. enjoy your hol’s!!! :D
Hope to see the results!!
Markus
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