Techniques for Snowy Landscapes

G

GEH007

Messages
279
Edit My Images
No
I've decided to take the full kit when skiing and as suggested, will have one gentle day where pottering about to photograph will be the aim.

I have never shot "snow" previously, what are the golden rules as I can imagine it's not the easiest.

In my thoughts are things like bracketing, increasing exposure, polarising filter but have no real sense of right and wrong at the moment.

It feels like composition will be the easy bit, everything else such as metering, focus points and so on will be difficult.

If anyone has experience to share or knows of any good articles online i'd really appreciate it.

Thanks.
 
Oops, any chance this could be moved to the Talk Photography forum please. Sorry.
 
Snow-thing comes to mind m8 :shrug::shrug::shrug:



Soz

A predominance of anything white fools your camera metering to underexposure, so your white snow often looks grey - my only snow tip would be to add around 1-2 to your exposure comp and check your blinkies

Other than that (and taking extra batteries in case yours have a cold problem) it's pretty much the same old 'rules'

Polarisers are good, but not on very wide lenses where skies are a big feature

Watch out for condensation

Have fun

Shoot lots

Post results

:thumbs:

DD
 
Well as you probably know, all that snow reflecting light 'fools' your meter into thinking there's more light than there is, so you need to increase exposure to compensate. A few test exposures is the way to go these days with digital, especially for landscape where your subject isn't going to beggar off.

It's a two-pronged problem though, the other one being white balance, which can cause snow to look very blue and unnatural. It's a bigger problem on overcast days when the light is being reflected down off that blue canopy overhead. It shouldn't be a big problem when the snow is in direct sunlight, when you should get good white snow, but you can still expect any shadow areas in the snow to have a blue cast.

Shoot RAW and take a custom wb shot from the snow if you can.
 
Thanks for your guidance all.

Any comment regarding use of filters, bracketing and focus points would be appreciated.

Re bracketing, if I set the standard compensation to say plus 1 stop, and then bracket one stop, I get 3 images at 0, +1 and +2. Does that seem a sensible approach? Can I even do that on a 40D, must check...edit just checked and yes I can. Good idea then?
 
Exposure settings also depend on the snow, older snow may only need +1 whereas fresh snow would probably need +2.
 
I don't really reckon bracketing a whole stop either side of an estimated correct exposure is the best solution.

Try pointing the meter at something more grey-ish - one example being the darkest part of a clear blue sky, or a green field (if there are any), or a tarmac road, or a mid-coloured article of clothing. The actual colour doesn't matter.

Lock that meter reading and re-compose. Or note it, recompose, and use exposure compensation until you get the same reading for your snowy scene.

That should give you a reasonably accurate exposure, and just to be sure I would bracket 1/3 or 1/2 stop either side.

After checking a few examples in your histogram, it should get a lot easier.:)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top