Polished by Cold

[TheReal7]

In a desperate attempt to keep myself from going insane I decided to hit the road with the camera today. This is the first time, this year, going out shooting for myself. Damn was it cold too. I ended up driving around for an hour and half finding nothing and feeling uninspired. The sky was looking promising and I was getting frustrated. Luckily I noticed the sheen of the snow. The recent warm temps followed by the cold froze all the snow making it look polished. It could even support me at times.

Enjoy!

Canon 40D + 10-22mm + 0.9 GND & 0.3 GND No HDR single exposures.

1

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2

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3

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4

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NEW
5

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Thanks for looking!

[bcd01]

Texture in photos really make a difference. Nice job, I like the color better even though the texture is stronger in the B&W.

[Riveredger]

1st one is my favorite. GREAT shots.

[mcdd]

Nice shots Scott, I like #3 the best. I know the feeling of searching for a location and feeling uninspired, especially in the winter, it seems like I always find something right at the end of my hunt. There's nothing worse then going home empty handed.

[projectmayhem713]

First shot is fantastic. Great exposure and composition. Great job.

[tmcman]

Simple color palatte and shapes in the first are superlative.

[TheReal7]

Thank you all so much

[MikeThompson]

Great shots. I've always been a fan of B&W especially when there's ice or snow. It just gives the photo a "colder" look. Fantastic job.

[L.J.G.]

Fabulous, I love number 1 & 2, the light & colour caste is perfect

[Klaus Meister]

These are all very nice, Scott.

[TheReal7]

Thank you very much!

[TheReal7]

One more!

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[Drive4show]

Very cool ( cold !!). Since all I have to shoot right now is the same sort of thing ( lots of snow ), I struggle with the ND Grads to balance out the snow and sky. I notice you let the snow go gray ( or blue in this case ), which, in my mind , is underexposed to what I would actually see. I find I need less grad in the sky because I want to overexpose the snow, getting it closer to the exposure of the sky anyway.

Comments ?

[TheReal7]

Originally Posted by Drive4show

Very cool ( cold !!). Since all I have to shoot right now is the same sort of thing ( lots of snow ), I struggle with the ND Grads to balance out the snow and sky. I notice you let the snow go gray ( or blue in this case ), which, in my mind , is underexposed to what I would actually see. I find I need less grad in the sky because I want to overexpose the snow, getting it closer to the exposure of the sky anyway.

Comments ?

All depends what your goal is. In this situation...making the snow any less blue looks too unnatural. The snow was like polished metal and reflecting a lot of color (think water). Every sunset is different. The other day, while driving home, the sunset was more of a golden orange and yellow and the snow was mostly white. Then the day before that it was pretty much a clear sky sunset and the snow was a bright cyan colour. Just because snow is white doesn't mean it is white in all lighting conditions. When I shot these it was very blue. I used a 0.9 soft grad for the sky and a 0.3 soft grad for the snow. Exposed to retain all highlights and shadows.

Your statement of less grads in the sky to overexpose the snow doesn't compute. You would want add a grad to the sky to tame it's brightness which would brighten up the snow.

[Drive4show]

Thanks Scott. I absolutely love your photos and am trying to learn all I can. We actually haven't had any warm up yet, nor much sun, so there is still mostly powder everywhere, which stays pretty white. I didn't realize the snow there would reflect so much of the sky.

And thanks for the clarification of the sky / snow. I finally managed to get some grads from LEE about a month ago, but I've had a helluva time trying to go out and use them due to the weather. The few times I've tried it , it hasn't worked too well.... now I know why !!!!