Snow

[MrEWorm]

I am heading to Wisconsin for a few days and I suspect I will have plenty of time to shoot in snow. With film, I always read my texts before I go to shoot in snow, and then mess up anyway.

Any suggestions on what settings to use?

I have 10D 100-400L, 16-35L and 24-70L

Thanks

[jimsloy]

If it's morning, I'd set the dial to Starbuck's. Make sure AWB is set to cream and sugar, and the ISO is set to Grande. Set zoom to Biscotti.

If it's afternoon, dial in the creative zone to Jeigermeister and shoot pics of a White Russian.

If it's evening, preview the pics using the order a pizza button, and set custom function 1 to a few beers.

Hope this helps!

[stowman2]

Good one jimsloy!




I would take your white ballance off of a grey card.

The best thing I would do is have fun!

[Andy_T]

.... and always remember that, when shooting RAW mode, you can salvage UNDERexposed shots ... but not OVERexposed ones.

Regards,
Andy

[Belmondo]

MrEWorm:
There is an article in the December issue of Outdoor Photography titled "Perfect Exposure Without a Meter." It deals with shooting in snow (and other conditions).

Since we don't get a lot of snow here in the desert, I haven't had a chance to check out any of their recommendations, but the article is valuable for other reasons.

Tom.

P.S. I was born in Wisconsin, but escaped many years ago. I haven't even seen the place since 1956, but I do remember the snow.

[scottbergerphoto]

Other then enjoy yourself, I have one suggestion regarding exposure settings for snow. The in camera meter will bias your white snow towards under exposure as it is designed to properly expose a scene that is about 18% Grey. If you want your snow to look white, you may want to add 1-2 stops exposure compensation and check the histogram. This applies to any reflective meter (in camera, hand held spot meter, etc.)
Enjoy,
Scott

[bnpndxtr]

Interesting topic, as I just spent yesterday taking pictures in the snow with my 10D. I was taking stills of some railroad stuff, and that worked out pretty well in programmed automatic mode.

However I shot several pictures of my son sledding using the sports mode, and the exposure was all messed up. When I was post-processing later, every picture was heavily grayed and had a spiked histogram where there was no data above about 60% on the horizontal axis. These images were all salvageable using level and gamma adjustments, but I was disappointed in the performance. Is this a “feature” of sports mode?

[bnpndxtr]

Ooops, I see that Scott may have addressed my comment above. Other comments?

[Jim_T]

Yes.. as scottbergerphoto mentioned, your camera will try average the scene and your snow will turn out grey.. You will have to add exposure compensation..

One handy feature is the histogram.

If you take a shot with no compensation, you should see the data forming a haystack in the middle of the box.. Add + exposure compensation until the haystack has moved over and is just touching the right side of the histogram box. Don't go much further or you'll wind up blowing out the white areas.

[Riod]

I subscribe to "OUTDOOR PHOTOGRAPHER". The December issue has an excellent article on "exposure without a meter". For snow it recomends f7.1@1/500 or f5.0@1/1000.

I tried several of the recomendations in the article and got good results. I am using a Digital Rebel.

The article says that shooting at the beach is the same as shooting in bright snow.

I hope I have been helpful.

[DaveG]

jimsloy wrote:

If it's morning, I'd set the dial to Starbuck's. Make sure AWB is set to cream and sugar, and the ISO is set to Grande. Set zoom to Biscotti.

If it's afternoon, dial in the creative zone to Jeigermeister and shoot pics of a White Russian.

If it's evening, preview the pics using the order a pizza button, and set custom function 1 to a few beers.

Hope this helps!




I'm sure an answer like this makes you feel just like Jay Leno, along with those boogger guys on the other thread. But it doesn't help anyone to make stupid and not particularly funny comments like this.

Ask a question, answer a question, or stay out of the way!

[ima_putz]

DaveG:
You seem angry---much more so than seems necessary for the point you're trying to make. Are, you suggesting that all humor be left out of the forum? I sure hope not.

Admittedly, not everyone is a 'Jay Leno,' and every once in a while, some of the humor is a little obscure. And to be sure, there are times when a subject gets badly beaten to death. But humor and lighthearted banter are very useful tools for keeping the mood of the forum upbeat and friendly.

IMHO, a blast like yours is far more injurious to an individual and damaging to the forum in general than is any one person’s attempt at humor. It has a chilling effect on everyone, and is really unnecessary. If you don’t want to read humor, you don’t have to, but some people (myself included) enjoy it and find it to be a valuable component of the group dynamic.

IP

[jimsloy]

DaveG wrote:
jimsloy wrote:

If it's morning, I'd set the dial to Starbuck's. Make sure AWB is set to cream and sugar, and the ISO is set to Grande. Set zoom to Biscotti.

If it's afternoon, dial in the creative zone to Jeigermeister and shoot pics of a White Russian.

If it's evening, preview the pics using the order a pizza button, and set custom function 1 to a few beers.

Hope this helps!




I'm sure an answer like this makes you feel just like Jay Leno, along with those boogger guys on the other thread. But it doesn't help anyone to make stupid and not particularly funny comments like this.

Ask a question, answer a question, or stay out of the way!


Actually, I think Jay Leno stinks. But perhaps maybe you should set yourself and your digital camera to sleep made and wakeup when YOU have something constructive and/or funny to say. Obviously I didn't have anything constructive to say, AND nothing negative to say. Humour makes this place fun, constructive comments makes this place better - none of which you offered.

[DaveG]

jimsloy wrote:
DaveG wrote:
jimsloy wrote:

If it's morning, I'd set the dial to Starbuck's. Make sure AWB is set to cream and sugar, and the ISO is set to Grande. Set zoom to Biscotti.

If it's afternoon, dial in the creative zone to Jeigermeister and shoot pics of a White Russian.

If it's evening, preview the pics using the order a pizza button, and set custom function 1 to a few beers.

Hope this helps!




I'm sure an answer like this makes you feel just like Jay Leno, along with those boogger guys on the other thread. But it doesn't help anyone to make stupid and not particularly funny comments like this.

Ask a question, answer a question, or stay out of the way!


Actually, I think Jay Leno stinks. But perhaps maybe you should set yourself and your digital camera to sleep made and wakeup when YOU have something constructive and/or funny to say. Obviously I didn't have anything constructive to say, AND nothing negative to say. Humour makes this place fun, constructive comments makes this place better - none of which you offered.




No you treated the person's question like it was too stupid to answer. And there seems to be lot of that going around this site right now.

Yours was the very first reply to a legitimate question and I inferred your reply to be either " "Piss Off" and ask something worth asking". Or, "I don't know, but I want to write something anyway." By the time I read this thread the question had been answered by others so I felt no need to be redundant, and that's the main reason that I wasn't "constructive".

As for me making constructive comments in general perhaps you should have a look at how I answered questions on this site in the past.

Why didn't you just answer the question with information. That would have been slightly more useful don't you think?

[ima_putz]

DaveG wrote:Yours was the very first reply to a legitimate question and I inferred your reply to be either " "Piss Off" and ask something worth asking".

DaveG:
What I hear you saying is that you wouldn't have been nearly as put off by jimsloy's response if some of the serious answers had been posted first.

They say that with humor, timing is everyting....apparently that's true.

Anyway, it looks like your real problem should be with the people who were slow to post their serious answers, and not with jimsloy because he was too fast posting his silly answer.

Why does life have to be this complicated?

BTW, this is all tongue-in-cheek, so please don't be offended. I hope you have a wondeful holiday. Actually, that applies to everyone.


IP

[defordphoto]

So....What was the question again? Something about snow? :)

[Belmondo]

You know, Jim, that kind of question can start all kinds of trouble around here. We're all trying to be very serious.

Tom

[sdommin]

OK, back to the original question.

The two most important things to use:

1. Your exposure compensation dial. Use +1 or +2.

2. Your review function. Check your results and go from there!

[chris.bailey]

belmondo wrote:
You know, Jim, that kind of question can start all kinds of trouble around here. We're all trying to be very serious.

Tom

But be prepared for some shots to still be way out. As others have said shoot RAW and err on the side of underexposure. Even so it is common to have snow scene shots with such a wide variation of exposure level that the camera just cannot cope with it. The eye/brain exposure system is still way better than anything electrical.

[jimsloy]

Dear DaveG:

Please have your doctor write you out a prescription for Smile-agra, because you obviously need to grow a sense of humor.

Now, since I've been intimately involved w/ this thread, how about if MrEWorm replies with some of the pics as I'm anxious to see if my advice helped.

Warning: The latter paragraph contains a bit of humor. The first paragraph was serious.

Thanks