Tips for shooting in snow

[azpix]

Going to be shooting some pix of the kids tomorrow sledding. Any tips for shooting in snow???????????

[JeffreyG]

Keep in mind that the bright white snow will make the camera meter incorrectly. I typically will use M mode and adjust my exposure until the snow is very bright but not blown out.

If you prefer to work in an auto-metered mode you will need to add a lot (1 stop or more) positive exposure compensation. If you do use an auto-metered mode the required amount of EC will vary with framing (the more snow in the shot, the more EC you need) so expect to need to do some tweaking in post.

[SuzyView]

AI Servo, take the aperture down to f8 or f11 if the snow is too reflective. If you shoot 1/500, I think f8 will be fine.

[elfy]

Yeah, as has been said, your camera will meter incorrectly because of all the white. Over expose by probably a stop or two to compensate.

[Tiger_993]

I shot some family sledding pics over Christmas with my 7D. Skies were overcast and I found myself over exposing around 1-2/3 to 2 stops. You will really enjoy the 8 fps on the 7D. :D

[egordon99]

AI Servo, take the aperture down to f8 or f11 if the snow is too reflective. If you shoot 1/500, I think f8 will be fine.

What about the ISO? What if it's cloudy? It's impossible to suggest specific settings if you don't know what the ambient lighting conditions are ;)

[T&E Run]

My wife and I were shooting our boy in the snow last week. I metered off the bright blue sky and used flash to fill. Without the flash there were a lot of shadows and his face was dark because of the hat he was wearing; and the fact that he was usually looking away from the sun.

[shaftmaster]

Shoot RAW with your picture style set to Faithful or Neutral so that the RGB histogram closely resembles the actual RAW data of each RGB channel. Then set the camera to M mode and pick a fast shutter speed to freeze the motion, maybe 1/500. Set your aperture so that the histogram comes close to the right edge without touching it. Then review your shots occasionally (especially if you change the direction you're facing) to make sure there are no "blinkies" indicating blown out areas. You can tweak everything later in post-processing. If you've never used the Neutral or Faithful picture styles, you'll notice that your shots will look rather soft and dull. If you use DPP you can change the picture style and add some sharpness to improve your shots and then tweak WB, saturation, contrast, etc.

[Bosscat]

Going to be shooting some pix of the kids tomorrow sledding. Any tips for shooting in snow???????????

Sunny 16 rule and go from there.