shooting in the snow. Flash?

[punkuate]

Shooting with a model tommorrow and I've been struggling with exposure in the snow the last few days. The snow is either blown and the subject properly exposed or everything just looks a bit grey.

So, would flash help to even this out? I'm not a big fan of using flash but will it make enough of a difference for me to give in and use it?

Help please.

 

[Scarecrow]

Lynnie have you tried taking an exposure reading off a grey card, rather than the actual scene? Might make a difference. However, generally I would say you should be exposing for your subject. If the snow is completely blown with no detail, could try dropping the exposure by 1/2 stop to see if it helps.

The alternative is that if your main subject is fairly dark, it could be that the dynamic range of the scene is beyond what your camera is capable of capturing. In that case, some fill flash would probably be your best option.

 

[punkuate]

Lynnie have you tried taking an exposure reading off a grey card, rather than the actual scene? Might make a difference. However, generally I would say you should be exposing for your subject. If the snow is completely blown with no detail, could try dropping the exposure by 1/2 stop to see if it helps.

The alternative is that if your main subject is fairly dark, it could be that the dynamic range of the scene is beyond what your camera is capable of capturing. In that case, some fill flash would probably be your best option.

Exposure was set from a grey card, and I've underexposed the subject slightly and got odd dirty coloured snow.

Ah well. I'll just hope the snow all magically disappears by tommorrow.

 

[tdodd]

You may find this thread useful - http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=277471.

My recommendation would be to set a manual exposure that captures the overall scene and background as you would wish. Then, if you need to, you add extra light to illuminate your subject. If you shoot raw you will buy yourself a little more freedom with your exposures to capture as much dynamic range as possible, if you need to, and then fine tune the appearance of the image in software.

However, if you use flash you need to be careful about light falloff and its appearance on the ground or other parts of the scene. If it is snowing you need to be aware that snowflakes closer to the flash are going to be much more brightly lit, and unless you get the flash off camera you are likely to have real problems there. If you have brilliant sunshine then you may find that the flash will not have the power you need to overcome the sun, and you might be better off with a reflector. There's a lot to consider, but I really think that fixing the exposure manually to get the exposure for the snow correct will at least give you some control over proceedings.

Here's an example straight out of camera, making use of natural light only. I picked my shooting position very deliberately to make use of available light and to avoid the need to use flash. The exposure was set manually so that it would remain correct regardless of who or what came over the jump and what colours/tones they were wearing....