Seeking advice for shooting snowy landscapes

chauncey wrote in post #16605614
Your camera settings have nothing at all to do with the RAW image that you cough out, they only represent what that camera would spit out should you be shooting in jpeg. I've written this often...

"I've been confused by that exposure compensation thing because the histogram was all over the place when imported into LR.
Since starting to shoot in manual mode, utilizing Live View's histogram, those problems are a thing of the past. Technique is:
That LV histogram is based on a jpeg rendition of your image so you need to "neutralize" (slide them to the left) all your "picture style" settings.
Set-up your LV to display a RGB histogram and blinkies whenever it's opened. Now it's a simple matter to adjust SS, F/stop, and ISO to
push" that histogram to just shy of the right side, a technique referred to as "Exposing To The Right".
Now simply input wanted/needed SS and f/stop and use the ISO to push that histogram to the right or...any combination of the three settings."

Having said all that...heed what Tom said

NCSA197 wrote in post #16605738
Here you go. Start with this. Keep it simple.

Both solid advice that will be taken to heart. I will try both the grey card technique as well as the over exposing. I have disabled the optimizer settings, NR, etc. and set my color to standard, to get a more accurate preview image on my lcd, and understand that shooting in RAW vs JPEG creates a "blank slate" when exported to Lightroom. I expect the images to be neutral or dull on my screen.

I understand that lighting is everything. It's just not always perfect. I do a lot of traveling and often find myself at a great "scene" with far less than great natural lighting. I seek to maximize my 'chance' of getting a great image as much as possible. I hope to learn and gain more knowledge. I want to learn what are the best settings to use, in a variety of different events and places. Is that not the goal? To learn what settings are best for the 'situation'.

About a year and a half ago, I was using (A+) mode and had no idea what to do in (Manual) Now I have learned the "proper" settings and seek personal knowledge and real world techniques. I again thanks everyone for their advice. I can't wait for this weekend to start.

Rather than start a new thread... I have obtained:

1 Understanding Exposure 3rd edition by Bryan Peterson
2 The Photographers Eye by Michael Freeman
3 Light Science Magic newest edition

Any other definitive reading I should be aware of?
Background: I shoot 90% environmental portraits, as stated above, in less than ideal lighting, but not looking to carry a light stand. Just my camera bag, couple primes, a flash, and maybe a tripod. If it comes between taking out my flash, and missing a shot: or taking it without flash, I tend to the latter.
Thanks in advance.

^ OMG, YOU ARE SCARY

Just some short cut might be useful:
1. Use & change the exposure in Liveview if you not sure the original setting right or not;
2. Check out the old painting from local museum. After you seen lots those old master, your composition / framing will be improved.

Good luck

x_tan wrote in post #16606824
^ OMG, YOU ARE SCARY

Just some short cut might be useful:
1. Use & change the exposure in Liveview if you not sure the original setting right or not;
2. Check out the old painting from local museum. After you seen lots those old master, your composition / framing will be improved.

Good luck

Reading Ebooks is SCARY? You are right, I should use liveview a lot more to test my settings.

Snydremark wrote in post #16603414
^^ Both good suggestions; a regular ND wouldn't do you any good there, as all that does is darken the entire frame, which doesn't change the dynamic range of the image, and a Graduated ND would be extremely difficult to use given where the sky is in those shots.

Waiting until the entire scene is lit would help, as would making sure the sun is coming more from behind you than in front of you. In that situation you could expose for the snow, or the sky, and come away with something more like X-tan's examples above

All good advice. And as for filters, a circular polarizer might help to clean up and add contrast if you have a lot of stray light bouncing around the atmosphere.

I have read good and bad stories about using CPL filters for landscape / wide angle shots.
Some recommend it while others sear it is terrible for giving the sky uneven and uncorrectable patterns.
I need to buy a good CPL for the time when I want to use my lens at a museum or gallery (where permitted)
to get rid of the glare from glass and overhead lighting. I had not really considered it for landscapes.

InfiniteDivide wrote in post #16622663
I have read good and bad stories about using CPL filters for landscape / wide angle shots.
Some recommend it while others sear it is terrible for giving the sky uneven and uncorrectable patterns.
I need to buy a good CPL for the time when I want to use my lens at a museum or gallery (where permitted)
to get rid of the glare from glass and overhead lighting.
I had not really considered it for landscapes.

It depends in just how wide you get, the angle of the light, and a number of other things. It happens when the light is coming in at multiple angles at the same time since the polarizer is working on light coming from one direction and you are controlling that by rotating it. But you can often turn it in such a way to make it look natural. Also, you can see what's going on through the viewfinder so if you don't like it you can remove it. You get a knack for it after a while.

I know these aren't snow shots but they are wide angles with CP.

IMAGE LINK: http://flic.kr/p/bv11q​4

IMAGE LINK: http://flic.kr/p/cJZC4​S

Tom Reichner wrote in post #16603917
In fact, waiting for the light is 90% of landscape photography. Or maybe 99% would be more accurate.

^^ the truth
and increasing the exposure with an all white snow scene)

It looks like the White Balance was a bit off, but if you shot Raw you can tweak it in Lightroom.

And then, if I shoot a scene like that I would expose so that the snow as well as the clouds was bright without "blowing them out" and then again shooting Raw you can in lightroom tone them down a bit with the Highlights slider.

And then, Lightroom has the nifty HSL tool where you can tweak the Blues to get the sky nicer. A CPL was mentioned, and that can be handy, but I rely more on the HSL functions, they can work nice with a "dull" blue sky!

Also you could play with the Lightroom Landscape camera calibration profile, see if that helps!

tonylong wrote in post #16626145
Also you could play with the Lightroom Landscape camera calibration profile, see if that helps!

Not sure where in Lightroom 5 this is?
I alway shoot in RAW and the only setting I have under camera calibration is 2012 (current) profile "embedded"
I have several presets downloads that assist me, then fine tune each image based on my own patience But I understand that is not what your referring to.

New trial, bright sunny day last weekend. Tried over exposing and correcting as well the HSL slider. I am very happy with the results.
But I understand natural lighting is 99% of the shot. The other 1% is the HSL blue slider

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InfiniteDivide wrote in post #16628018
Not sure where in Lightroom 5 this is?
I alway shoot in RAW and the only setting I have under camera calibration is 2012 (current) profile "embedded"
I have several presets downloads that assist me, then fine tune each image based on my own patience But I understand that is not what your referring to.

If you go to the Camera Calibration tab, go to the Profile drop-down list, click it and a list will drop down with numerous options, including some Adobe options and then "Camera" options which they have sought to pattern mimicking the camera Picture Styles. Among these is "Camera Landscape". I tend to prefer other approaches because I tend to not prefer the Camera Landscape defaults, but you can still play with it.

The HSL sliders are my best friend especially the Blue Luminance slider, -20-30, and blue saturation +20-30 usually does the trick. Also lift your shadows a bit too to get a bit more dynamic range.

It's amazing what these small adjustments can do to an image.

NCHANT wrote in post #16630657
The HSL sliders are my best friend especially the Blue Luminance slider, -20-30, and blue saturation +20-30 usually does the trick. Also lift your shadows a bit too to get a bit more dynamic range.

It's amazing what these small adjustments can do to an image.

It really is. I have chosen about 9 pictures I really like from my summer trip and played around with them heavily. I am getting better at composition and doing less or no cropping.
Lightroom manual adjustments is vert time consuming, even with presets. But worth it.