Exposure for moose in snow

M

Moose hunter

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Alaska calling!!! The subject I am trying to photograph are dark brown moose surrounded with snow. How do I easily set my camera to photograph this? The moose often are too far away to meter them. But not always! My camera settings have been the following: shooting in AWB-cloudy, iso 100 or 200 depending upon availabilty of light. exposure compensation 1/2-1 stop on the +/- side, it doesn't work. My pictures are totaly off, the moose are too dark with no defenition. I have thought of using a grey card perhaps. How do I shot this with total confidence that I am photographying this correctly? Someone out there has an easy solution for this photo shot and I appreciate your advice in advance. Have a good day!
 
Hmmmm tricky one to answer, what equipment are you using to take the Moose ? also how far away are they approximately ? Does the camera have spot metering ?

One thing you could do, if on a tripod, take one metered for the moose, and one metered for the snow and then combine them in Photoshop

Is very tricky metering with snow around, you can end up with the dreaded blue snow as well if the white balance is thrown.

Also incredibly jealous ;) do you get bears and wolves too ?
 
Hi Moose Hunter. :wave:

What sort of camera do you have. Is it film or digital?
 
Just forgetting your moose for the moment.

Taking photos in the snow is a problem on it's own. All that white snow fools the meter in your camera into thinking that the light is much brighter than it is which results in under-exposed (dark) pictures, so you need to give extra exposure normally anyway.

Now if your moose was instead, another person in the distance who you couldn't get close enough to meter on, then you could meter on your own hand, which would be about the same skin tone, and use that setting.

So I would suggest that the easiest way to tackle the problem is to take a camera meter reading from something closer to you which is about the same colour and tone as the moose - clothing, boots, another animal, a tree trunk perhaps?

Hope that helps. Please just ask if you need any more help. :)
 
Thank you so much for your suggestions. I had thought of my hand, or something neutral in tone actually! Did not do it however! So will try this weekend when I will once again go out. Again, thank you for taking the time to reply....
 
I shoot with a Canon 20D. This weekend I will try your suggestion of spot metering. I have been very close to moose, not always of my own design. And of course I have shot from a distance when it was safer with bull moose in rut, approximately 40-70 yards. All this snow has been a problem when photographing. Thank you for taking the time to reply. Have a good day!
 
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