Capturing Snow

[chadaw]

We have received over a foot of beautiful snow. Course that throws the white balance off or something, can someone give me pointers on shooting the beautiful snow on my dRebel? Thanks.

[Jon]

You're probably underexposing with all that white. If you are, the snow will look a very dingy grey. Try opening up a couple of stops. You may also be seeing a blue cast from that enormous reflector bouncing all that diffuse sky light back. A custom white balance may help there.

[Mr. Pickles]

Bright snow for the most part is one stop different than the Sunny-16 rule. So, with ISO 100, and a aperture of f/16, would be looking at a shutter of 1/250sec.(Sunny-16 woul dbe 1/125sec)

At f8, the snowing image would be 1/1000sec.

Or like Jon said, open it up a stop or two or do a white balance setting....

[Jon]

Or like Jon said, open it up a stop or two or do a white balance setting....
No, the white balancing would be for a different issue - the blue cast you may see from reflected (blue) sky light.

[robertwgross]

I think we just covered this yesterday.

For new snow on a bright day, set Exposure Compensation to about +1.5.

For old snow on a dim day, set Exposure Compensation to about +0.5 or +1.0.

Otherwise, all white snow ends up looking gray.

---Bob Gross---

[cmM]

I'll give you one piece of advice... shoot RAW

[ScottE]

First, use Custom White Balance. Auto white balance will sometimes come out too blue for snow scenes.

Second, use exposure compensation or manual exposure. You will probably have to set exposure compensation somewhere between +1 and +2 stops to get snow to come out white instead of grey or blue. This method is not always reliable if you are doing different compositions with differing mixtures of snow and other objects such as people. The exposure compensation setting that would be perfect for a snow covered winter scene with only a few small dark portions will over expose if you do a close-up of a person with only a bit of snow around the edges. Then, you will want to use manual exposure. Pick the brightest part of the snow and set exposure so that it is over exposed by 1 2/3 or 2 stops. Then, using that setting check neutral toned parts of your composition to see if they are reasonably exposed. Sometimes you have to compromise between blowing out details in the brightest part of the snow and underexposing the main subject on a sunny day in the snow.

Use the histogram to check exposure of you pictures. The manual system would have worked much better if Canon had provided a spot metering option.

[HKFEVER]

Why not use ND filter?

[robertwgross]

Why not use ND filter?

You don't shoot snow much, do you?

---Bob Gross---

[HKFEVER]

No, I live in hot area that don't have snow but very bright sunshine.

[Adam Hicks]

What about shooting RAW and metering off an 18% card? Should be able to get a good usable image that isn't blown out on either end that way...

$.02

[robertwgross]

I think you are missing the point. New snow is relatively white. When you shoot something that white, the camera's meter will try to determine exposure values to make the subject look like about 18% gray. I'm taking a wild guess that you don't want your new snow to look 18% gray. That is what exposure compensation is all about.

Using an 18% gray card and metering off that will get excellent results, in theory, but I find that to be impractical. I mean, if you were in a studio and had your camera all set up on a tripod, and the subject distance was constant, and the lighting was constant, then you could step over and have the subject hold up an 18% gray card, shoot it, make a few decisions, and VOILA!

However, when I am out on a ski slope, there are too many inconsistent factors running around the scene, and it tends to be a little impractical.

---Bob Gross---

[mr.photoguy]

You don't shoot snow much, do you?

---Bob Gross---
haha ..
that was a good one

[bachscuttler]

We have received over a foot of beautiful snow. Course that throws the white balance off or something, can someone give me pointers on shooting the beautiful snow on my dRebel? Thanks.
Its all about preparing the scene.
Yellow snow is much easier to photograph.

You know what you have to do