Get those cameras ready , SNOW!

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Pirate Neilsouth

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Apparantly a real winter blast is going to hit late wednesday onwards , some will have two days of snowfall!. If it does happen , lets see those winter pictures and christmas card scenes :wave:

p.s It's really cold outside now here , ice forming already
 
No. + 1.5. Your meter will be fooled into thinking there is more light than there actually is so you have to tell it to expose more, not less.

You can try -1.5 if you like dark grey snow!


Steve.
 
b****r! I just checked our forecast all full of glee only to find...........more sodding rain! grrrr
 
Steve Smith said:
No. + 1.5. Your meter will be fooled into thinking there is more light than there actually is so you have to tell it to expose more, not less.

You can try -1.5 if you like dark grey snow!


Steve.
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Doh, of course... brain has already gone on xmas leave!
 
-Rob- said:
Will you not get totally over exposed blown out snow with +1.5 exposure compensation? I wouldn't know as I've never photographed snow before.
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I won't because I use film. Your delicate little digital sensors might though!

The amount of compensation varies from one to two stops depending on how much snow there is and how clever your metering system is.

Nikon claim that their matrix metering can compensate all by itself but I'm not so sure.


Steve.
 
Yep,agree +1.5-2 stops for snow.:):thumbs:
 
Steve Smith said:
No. + 1.5. Your meter will be fooled into thinking there is more light than there actually is so you have to tell it to expose more, not less.

You can try -1.5 if you like dark grey snow!


Steve.
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Bur surely there IS more light as all that white snow is acting as a great big reflector and bouncing the light back at you ?

I've not read that link, but I know when I've shot snow in the past, that my metering system has worked as it should and exposed perfectly.

Panasonic FZ50 and Canon 400D, so not pro or expensive kit....
 
remember that an dslr and most other digital cameras will attempt achieve midtone grey when they set the exposure, so when their is lots of snow, the camera will tend to underexpose to achieve that grey, so to compensate you have to overexpose. Same as when you are shooting something that is very dark or black, you would need to underexpose as the camera will tend to overexpose to get that grey..
 
Pirate Neilsouth said:
Apparantly a real winter blast is going to hit late wednesday onwards , some will have two days of snowfall!. If it does happen , lets see those winter pictures and christmas card scenes :wave:

p.s It's really cold outside now here , ice forming already
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You mean you have missed Ian's forecasting snow before the weather men did :p ( I think it is in Out of Focus)
 
Hope it does come overnight, i work 35 miles away and use public transport so the smallest amount of snow will mean no possibility of getting into work :p

Which will then hopefully give me time to go out and get some nice pics! :D
 
Steve Smith said:
If you give your sensor more light than it can handle, shooting in RAW isn't going to save it.
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Agreed - IF you give the sensor more light than it can handle. But the sensor can potentially handle a lot more light than shooting to JPEG would suggest. If you do shoot to raw you have quite a bit of wiggle room for recovery, and several other advantages too.

See the examples of raw recovery in this online album. The album should also demonstrate why you should use +ve exposure compensation for a snow scene, if you want to keep the whites looking white...

http://picasaweb.google.com/EezyTiger/Exposure?authkey=Gv1sRgCOui54easIX-LQ

Here is an example from the album with the exposure set at +4 stops, metered from a sunlit white shirt....

MWSnap%202009-09-11%2C%2008_52_19.jpg


Of course, it appears almost entirely blown and, if this had been shot as a JPEG it would be well beyond any hope of recovery. However, here is the same image file with exposure reduced by -1.5 stops in Lightroom....

MWSnap%202009-09-11%2C%2009_07_12.jpg


There is a remarkable amount of detail available to be recovered from the shirt. That's a pretty strong endorsement of raw, especially for those who are not so good at metering accurately.

If the scene contained snow rather than a white shirt the ability to recover blown areas of the scene would be similar. Personally I like to set a manual exposure, spot metering the brightest part of the scene - probably sunlit snow - at +3 stops, which puts the scene at the edge of clipping, and buying me a stop of extra headroom for recovery if I need it.

Another option, if shooting a snow scene in winter sun - set a manual exposure based on the "Sunny 16" guideline for exposures in bright sun, perhaps with slight modification depending on the intensity/angle of the sun. Here's an example of mine, shot with a "Sunny 16" manual exposure. It could not be easier. This was shot at an exposure of Sunny 16 + 1/3, as were ~140 similar photos shot within a 40 minute period...

20090813_140439_39_LR.jpg
 
i'm not hoping for snow, means i won't get to work, means i won't get paid :(
 
Same here . no work no pay ,as much as i love the stuff from a photography view, plays hell with my back pocket.
 
The sensor trys to mke things grey.. 18% grey iirc..

If you have a very white (nothing to do with how BRIGHT the light is as its already compensating for that) scene, then it'll try to make the white grey, by UNDEREXPOSING.. so you have to ADD compensation.. again, if you have a predominately DARK scene, the camera will try to OVER expose to make all the blacks look grey.. so, you need to dial in NEGATIVE compensation..

So, it its bright, you +

If its dark you - it..

EASY....





:nuts:
 
Borats Baby said:
Bur surely there IS more light as all that white snow is acting as a great big reflector and bouncing the light back at you ?
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It depends on the subject matter. If you are taking pictures of people such that the person fills most of the frame, then the snow will act like a giant reflector and provide some very nice shadow fill. In this case a meter reading from the person (centre weighted will probably work) would normally give the correct exposure.

If you are taking general landscape type views though, or groups of people where the snow is predominently filling the frame, then some positive compensation will usually be needed.


Steve.
 
Proof?:)
 
Thanks for enlightening us on this subject, I would have reduced my exposure.. lets hope we get some snow :thumbs:
 
Really started chucking it down here, was dry as a bone 20 minutes ago but now there's a good amount on the floor already. Shame i have to work tomorrow, will be getting out nice and early if it's settled though.
 
sometimes the snow is grey

when i was in zenica at the big factory they said since the factory stopped because of the war [1993] it was the first time they had seen white snow.
the polution had previousley made it all grey.
 
Snowing here, and has been for a while.. Looks like it's here to stay for some time too.
 
jgs001 said:
Snowing here, and has been for a while.. Looks like it's here to stay for some time too.
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BBC website said snowing from 9pm in Oxfordshire ... glorious clear skies...:thumbsdown:
 
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