Film speed in Snow?

[Karen]

Hi everyone, i'm new and wondered if you could help me.
We are going on holiday in January to Canada, I'm not sure what speed of film to use for the snow and Niagra Falls etc. At work they have been selling off some films half price so i've bought some Kodak 400 speed. I have a Canon EOS 500N and tend to just use the auto mode, therefore I just point and shoot! (Sorry, lazy I know!)
Do you think the 400 is suitable or too fast? thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Big Mike]

Welcome to the Forum.

I don't think film speed will matter very much if you are shooting snow. If anything you might want lower speed film like 100.

What you have to be aware of is that your camera will meter snow and think "it's too bright" and therefore make the exposure too dark...which will make your snow look muddy.

What you can do to counteract this it to set your exposure compensation to +2. Then your snow will look much better on film.

If you are using regular negative film (print film) the machine or the lab worker will probably tweak the prints so that the snow looks better anyway.

What you have to watch out for is contrasting scenes...like a person in dark clothing standing in front of snow. You cannot get both the dark parts and the snow to show up on the film like how you see it. You will have to choose which is more important and meter for that.

My suggestion is to stick around here and learn how to use that camera of yours. If all you do is keep it in P mode...you might as well save space and bring a small point & shoot camera.

Another thing to consider is that there may not be snow in the parts of Canada that you visit. We don't all live in igloos up here

 

[GerryDavid]

Mike, you dont live in an igloo? Did it melt or something? : 0)

There will probably be snow in Niagara falls in January, but its not guaranteed. In Ontario weve been seing more green Christmas's in the last 10 years. The first 15 or so years of my life I never seen a green Christmas, well grass isnt green, more brown, hehe. Ive seen a few since. But I dont think its made it to mid jan with out snow in my life time yet.

To bad your coming in Jan, if you were coming in the summer, Id recommend that you go to Canada's Wonder Land.

Also it can be very cold, especially around the falls thanks to all the mist around the falls. *side note, all the new hotels around niagara falls has caused the wind patterns to change and has increased the amount of the mist around the falls by 2 or 3 times of what was there just 10 or so years ago*