Snow and 300D advice

[loebas]

We live in The Netherland and we very seldom have much snow. Last week we got tons of it and we were enjoying it the whole weekend.
We also took our 300D with 70-200 f4.

When taking photos we know that you have to overexpose the film (sensor) by 1/3 (cloudy) or 2/3 stops (bright sunshine).
When running through all the photos taken, we think quite a few are rather overexposed, most of them came out just wonderful (70-200) is great !

With regard to taking photos in snow we have some questions:
Is our overexpose setting right ?
What parameter is best to use (1 or 2) ?
If you take photos of kids taking a slaighride and you zoom in 100% on the kids (or zoom in on someone standing on snow) ,are the exposure settings still right ?
What snowphotographing tips do you have for us

Snow will be gone tomorrow but If we get some snow later this year we can use your tips.

[cactusclay]

I haven't tried using custom wb to see what that does, but I used to work as a ski photographer and I always had my exposure compensator set at +2.

[loebas]

We live in The Netherland and we very seldom have much snow. Last week we got tons of it and we were enjoying it the whole weekend.
We also took our 300D with 70-200 f4.

When taking photos we know that you have to overexpose the film (sensor) by 1/3 (cloudy) or 2/3 stops (bright sunshine).
When running through all the photos taken, we think quite a few are rather overexposed, most of them came out just wonderful (70-200) is great !

With regard to taking photos in snow we have some questions:
Is our overexpose setting right ?
What parameter is best to use (1 or 2) ?
If you take photos of kids taking a slaighride and you zoom in 100% on the kids (or zoom in on someone standing on snow) ,are the exposure settings still right ?
What snowphotographing tips do you have for us

Snow will be gone tomorrow but If we get some snow later this year we can use your tips.
Is our question too difficult or ?, were are all the "L-pro's" ??????

[wolf]

If you are experiencing overexposure using EC then maybe try metering on something darker such as a grove of trees and use AE Lock (Exposure Lock). Then focus on your subject and shot.

[cactusclay]

You have an LCD screen to give you an idea,if it's too dark let more light in. To switch parameters only takes a second, try both, rather than lash out at people because you can't figure something out as simple as changing a couple of settings.

[Jim_T]

Yes.. Use the histogram.

There is no 'exact' setting for snow.. It also depends if the snow is under blue sky or an overcast sky.. (Fresh snow and a heavily overcast sky is the hardest to expose for)..

Read the histogram and keep the 'haystack' as far to the right as possible without going past the right boundary.

It's also possible to compensate somewhat with post processing.

(IThere's snow on the ground for around 5 months of the year where I live.. It comes in November and stays until April :) )

[Persian-Rice]

Meter your palm and compensate from there. If you see any blue sky meter the blue sky.

[ScottE]

I do a lot of snow photography for cross country ski races.

The best tool with digital photography is the histogram. Shoot a test shot then have a look at the histogram. The peak that represents the white part of the picture should be near the right side of the histogram graph. If it is on the right border, part of the photo will be over exposed and you will blow out detail in the snow. If the peak is further to the left you will end up with grey snow. Usually an exposure of about +1 will get you where you want to be, but to be more precise, try metering on the brightest part of the scene in manual exposure and setting that at about +1 2/3 stops. (The lack of a true spot meter is a hinderence for this technique, so it is usually best to use the historam.)

Shooting RAW format is another good solution. As long as you can get the exposure within a stop it is usually possible to adjust a a RAW file to get a good picture. I prefer to be careful not to underexpose for this purpose because you will get slightly more detail if you convert a slightly over-exposed photo.

[kawter2]

meter the trees and shoot manual

[Persian-Rice]

meter the trees and shoot manual

I won't blame you, cuz you are from Cali.
But when it snows, the trees turn white too, and usually there are no leaves on them :D So forget foliage metering trick.

[Lensdude]

Use the histogram to fine tune your exposure compensation value but also set your parameter to AdobeRGB which offers a broader gamut than sRGB.

[kawter2]

I won't blame you, cuz you are from Cali.
But when it snows, the trees turn white too, and usually there are no leaves on them :D So forget foliage metering trick.

HAHA I serriously started laughing out loud!!! I never thought of that cause the trees are always green here...


That is a CLASSIC!!!

[loebas]

I do a lot of snow photography for cross country ski races.

The best tool with digital photography is the histogram. Shoot a test shot then have a look at the histogram. The peak that represents the white part of the picture should be near the right side of the histogram graph. If it is on the right border, part of the photo will be over exposed and you will blow out detail in the snow. If the peak is further to the left you will end up with grey snow. Usually an exposure of about +1 will get you where you want to be, but to be more precise, try metering on the brightest part of the scene in manual exposure and setting that at about +1 2/3 stops. (The lack of a true spot meter is a hinderence for this technique, so it is usually best to use the historam.)

Shooting RAW format is another good solution. As long as you can get the exposure within a stop it is usually possible to adjust a a RAW file to get a good picture. I prefer to be careful not to underexpose for this purpose because you will get slightly more detail if you convert a slightly over-exposed photo.

Can you post some exaples of cross country photos (cloudy, blue sky, sun)incl exif ?

[kiwimichael]

Hi
My girlfriend went out on Sunday with her 300D (while there was still snow in the Netherlands) and shot several images. When she returned I asked if she had used EC to compensate, but she had not. I expected to see lots of grey snow, but to my amazement, most of the shots had nice white snow! I can only assume that the AWB (something we don't have on an analogue camera) sorts it all out.

Michael

[ScottE]

Can you post some exaples of cross country photos (cloudy, blue sky, sun)incl exif ?
Is it OK to post photos here? I guess I'll try and find out. These were shot in CR2 format with a 20D using a Sigma 50-500 lens and converted to jpg using Rawshooter essentials 2005. Shot in Av mode with +1 exposure compensation to give a slightly overexposed image that will give more detail when converted.

Image resized using Photoshop Elements bicubic interpolation.

The EXIF data is no longer attached to the file after using Elements, but it was ISO 400, f/8, shutter speed 1/1,000, focal length 65 mm.

British Columbia Midget Championships, Telemark Cross Country Ski Club, Kelowna

I used the "Manage Attachments" function and it shows the file name, "Top of the downhill.jpg", but I am not certain that actually attaches an image to this message. If not, can someone give me a hint as to how it should be done?

Scott

[loebas]

Hi
My girlfriend went out on Sunday with her 300D (while there was still snow in the Netherlands) and shot several images. When she returned I asked if she had used EC to compensate, but she had not. I expected to see lots of grey snow, but to my amazement, most of the shots had nice white snow! I can only assume that the AWB (something we don't have on an analogue camera) sorts it all out.

Michael

Noticed too that the AWB with no overexposure setting turns out very good.
What Paramater did your girlfriend use ?