It's been a brutal one this year -- all kinds of snow records have been broken (some held since the 19th century!) and it's been, typically, cold (including the worst of that polar vortex that got us down to -30 up here with wind chills much colder.) I am on the banks of Lake Superior (and about 35 miles from the upper peninsula of Michigan,) so we get lake effect snow on top of the storms blowing through. Though March is finally here, we still have over 3 feet of snow on the ground (and much higher snowbanks,) so looking forward to warming up again! In the meantime, had to get out a few times and get some fun, snowy shots. I LOVE snowfall photos. The ones with my daughters were taken after the snow stopped. I find that the snow is not always the best to work in because it is a huge light reflector (though it also provides nice fill light for sure.) I just have to be careful around it for that reason. Thanks and feel free to ask me anything!
1.) My boys out shoveling the driveway.
2.)
3.) My girls in the dresses they got for Valentine's Day.
dmacmillan wrote:
All are nice, but #8 is terrific!
Thanks -- it was a lucky catch.
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sdemi442001 wrote:
Noob question: did you have to overexpose for the snow in these delightful images?
I did a little, but not as much as if it were full daylight. It was the "Golden Hour," so just exposed for their faces which was about right for that (more even) light.
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Danpbphoto wrote:
Beautiful Kristin!! I grew up in Iowa and this was a daily event in the 1950's. Great exposures and dead on sharpness!
Dan
Yes, IA got it pretty good this year as well, I heard. Thanks!
sdemi442001 wrote:
Noob question: did you have to overexpose for the snow in these delightful images?
If I may, I'd like to clarify a few things. Reflective metering, such as averaging metering, expects a certain mixture of dark areas, mid tone areas and lighter areas in a scene. The camera then adjusts exposure to come up with the total scene average of middle grey. If the tones in the scene are predominately lighter, then the camera will adjust the exposure darker and underexpose the scene. If the situation was reversed, say a black cat on a dark background, then the camera will overexpose the image to lift the darks up to mid grey.
Cameras have exposure compensation to do just that, compensate where the scene elements can make the exposure incorrect. For DSLRs, it is normal to evaluate the scene, then dial in a rough estimate of exposure compensation, then check the image and fine tune for another exposure. With mirrorless, you can judge exposure in the EVF and make adjustments on the fly.
On the old days with film, I would use an external exposure meter and make an incident reading at the subject. An incident exposure reading measures the amount of light falling on the subject as opposed to a reflective reading from the camera that measures how much light is reflected back to the camera from the subject.
dalite wrote:
Despite the brutal cold the girls seem to be able to take it in wearing those dresses. Brrr.
Ha, this was taken a few weeks after the "polar vortex" had left us, but yes, I had to tell my older girl to get a coat, though we were only out for a few minutes. (They are northern New England born and bred.)
