A couple of snowy exposures.

m1a1fan · Dec 29, 2007

Hi all,

I took the camera out in the snow for the first time today to do a bit of snow photography. This is something I'm very new to and have done a bit of reading on how to properly expose snow so the camera's meter does not underexpose the image or render the snow 18% grey.

Composition aside, I'm looking for thoughts on how the snow turned out. I was watching both my Histogram and Highlights display in the camera to avoid blowing out areas of the snow.

The shots were taken today which was overcast and about ninety minutes before sunset.

Shots were taken with my D80 and 18-70mm lens.

ISO: 200 - 1/20th @ f/11 - +1 EV

ISO: 200 - 1/20th @ f/11 - +0.7 EV

Trenton Romulox · Dec 30, 2007

The first one is blown out to me and the second one is a little blown out, but not bad. Snow is very hard to expose. Just experiment with different stuff and you'll nail it. I'd say the second one is closer than the first is though.

The_Traveler · Dec 30, 2007

These aren't blown out so much as there is no shadow detail in the whiteness and so it looks very flat.

m1a1fan · Dec 31, 2007

Trenton Romulox said:
The first one is blown out to me and the second one is a little blown out, but not bad. Snow is very hard to expose. Just experiment with different stuff and you'll nail it. I'd say the second one is closer than the first is though.

Thanks for taking the time to comment. I'll keep practicing, it's supposed to snow again here tonight.

The_Traveler said:
These aren't blown out so much as there is no shadow detail in the whiteness and so it looks very flat.

Traveler - Thank you for commenting. I was trying to keep the photo as close to the "255" side of my histogram without blowing the highlights (to keep the snow white). I'm assuming by doing this I lost what little shadow detail I had in the first shot due to overexposing for the snow.

I think what I might try next time is to not expose so far to the right of the histogram and see what I come up with. I'm just starting to put my thoughts together from the reading I've been doing and am now waiting for some fresh snow as well.

I'd like to hear any advise you might have on the subject.:mrgreen: