Good Afternoon! I am a novice photographer looking to get better (hence the post!). If you haven't heard the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states are going to get walloped with snow tomorrow, and I am thinking a sick day is in order What better time to grab the camera and head outdoors to find some great landscape scenes. Before I do so, I was just looking for some tips on shooting in the snow. First, I would imagine it would be very easy to over-expose any shots due to the blind white. Second, with snow being forecasted for much of the day on Wednesday, I would imagine overcast conditions. What is the best approach to balancing these two conditions in terms of exposure, ISO, etc. Any input would be greatly appreciated. - Bill
If you are using your camera's meter....it will look at snow as if it were 18% gray and that is what you will get if you use the setting it tells you to. In order to get good white snow using manual settings, you will have to either 1) open up your aperature by 1 or more stops, or 2) decrease your shutter speed. If you are shoot Program or A or S priority, use your exposure compensation controls and go for 1 full stop or more. Check your histogram....and bracket your shots. You want to make sure you keep detail and not blow out the whites in the snow. Keep in mind that if there are other parts of the scene that are contrasty, like trees, etc. this will affect how much your change your exposure.
Modern matrix meters tend to average out using the lights and darks. As long as your scenes contain some of both (and most do,) metering in matrix should be fine. I live in a place that usually has snow on the ground six months of the year and don't do anything special as far as metering. Do check your histogram or blinking highlights, and adjust accordingly.
to echo what some have said, your camera will 'average out' the brightness in your frame (or in a smaller area, if you set it to), and make the average brightness appear 18% gray (if it were white). This may be what you want, depending on what is in your frame. But if there is a lot of snow, the white snow will greatly affect the average brightness, and hence the snow will be converted to a grayer 'color' by the meter.
To fix this, you can just watch your histogram, or stores sell 'gray cards' that you could expose to before taking the shot. Not many ppl do this anymore though.
Also, when snow is actually falling, I have had the most success with wide apertures and fast shutter speeds. It looks nice to freeze the snow while falling, and you get a better 'winter-like' feel if the snowflakes nearest you are kinda blurry (I feel... others may disagree)
