Photographing snow

Phil-D

Phil-D

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Hiya, sorry if this has been done to death, but I'm struggling with taking photos of the snow. I have been practising on this drift and trying to get detail in the snow without it looking grey.

Now I'm not big on PP but I've got NX2 and used it to alter the exposer compensation to -1.0. I also let it calculate white balance for me and just brightened it up slightly.

Now to me it still looks a little grey, but the snow to the left of the fence looks over exposed. :bang:

Could someone tell me what they think and any help to make snow look white and still have detail would be very much appreciated, thanks.

 
Its grey because its in shadow and the light source is slightly above and behind you to the left of shot (look at the shadow of the wooden spar)

Expose for the snow on the left and it will make the rest even more grey (underexposed)
Expose for the snow in shadow and you will blow out the snow on the left (overexposed)

You are obviously after even whiteness across the picture but that is not how it looks in reality. You could use layers in PS to get both sides the same but it would make the shot look unnatural. You have avoided the snow looking blue which is the usual mistake beginners make so really you have to just understand that light and shade is all part of what makes a shot.
 
Gary, thanks for the reply :)

So basically this is about the best I'm going to get here. I didn't think it looked too bad but was unsure if I could have done more to make the white look better.

Btw, what is it that makes snow look blue, just in case I find that happens?
 
The snow can look either blue or very grey depending on the ambient light, basically your cameras sensor uses mid grey as a default starting point when measuring exposure values and this is why a small colour balanced grey card is a very useful thing to have in your bag so that regardless of the variances of colour and light in a shot you can meter from the grey card in the same light as the scene and use that as your start exposure.
So a scen with a lot of white in it will fool the sensor and throw your white balance/colour temperature off and in bright light that will often give you a blue cast because your camera has underexposed the shot. Compensate by +1 and recheck (this can vary depending on the ambient light and the blueness of the scene) or better still if you dont have a grey card to hand then look for a midtone in the scene and use spot metering and take that as your exposure.

There are no exact settings as all scenes are different but this should get you off to a good start.
 
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Phil-D said:
Now I'm not big on PP but I've got NX2 and used it to alter the exposer compensation to -1.0
Click to expand...

You should do the exposure compensation in camera, not in post processing.

Camera meters think that every scene is a standard 18% reflectance scene. Cover everything in snow and it starts to reflect more light and to compensate, the meter will under expose.

You have to compensate for the meter's compensation and add some exposure. Try + 1 stop as a starting point.


Steve.
 
All good stuff about exposure compensation etc. but ultimately this:

Gazamonk said:
Its grey because its in shadow and the light source is slightly above and behind you to the left of shot (look at the shadow of the wooden spar)

Expose for the snow on the left and it will make the rest even more grey (underexposed)
Expose for the snow in shadow and you will blow out the snow on the left (overexposed)

You are obviously after even whiteness across the picture but that is not how it looks in reality. You could use layers in PS to get both sides the same but it would make the shot look unnatural. You have avoided the snow looking blue which is the usual mistake beginners make so really you have to just understand that light and shade is all part of what makes a shot.
Click to expand...
 
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Gazamonk said:
Here this is a more eloquent explanation.

http://digital-photography-school.com/why-is-the-snow-in-my-pictures-so-blue

.
Click to expand...

Gary,thanks for the explanation and the link. :thumbs: I'll have a look shortly





Steve Smith said:
You should do the exposure compensation in camera, not in post processing.

Camera meters think that every scene is a standard 18% reflectance scene. Cover everything in snow and it starts to reflect more light and to compensate, the meter will under expose.

You have to compensate for the meter's compensation and add some exposure. Try + 1 stop as a starting point.


Steve.
Click to expand...

Cheers, Steve :thumbs: I'll be out tomorrow giving it ago :)

I've seen enough snow for today :bang: Its just taken me 3 hours to dig the missus car out of the drive, on the hope that a snow blower (that's what the council say they need to clear our lane :cuckoo:) will be round tomorrow and we can get out :clap:

:shrug: ....you wonder why it took me 3 hours :thinking:


Here's why........does this one look a little blue?


It was took yesterday in very poor light


 
I concur John and think the 1st exposure is actually fine and my reply to Phil i feel bears that out, he had pretty much nailed the exposure but was hoping/expecting more exposure latitude in the shot which without PP is not possible.
 
Johnytuono said:
Hi
A little grey.....looks under-exposed to me.
JohnyT
Click to expand...

Right,thanks John......the reason I asked, on my monitor (laptop), I couldn't make my mind up between it looking grey or blue on the last photo.

As said earlier, I'll have a read at the link and see if I can improve tomorrow. :)
 
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