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Photographing Snow
Daily Ink
Stored in: Technique
Posted On: February 09 2008
By: Brittney Bush
Photo © Chris Lombardi
Vacation time is here, and I find myself in the snowy wonderland of Lake Tahoe, admiring the picturesque winter scenes that stretch as far as my eyes can see, and trying to figure out how on earth to photograph them properly - I many of my previous snow photos have turned out either dull grey or blindiing, "no information" white. A little research turned up a very simple but useful tutorial, "Exposing Snow," on nature photography site The Luminous Landscape. They describe three techniques for finding the proper exposure point for snow.
1) Your digital camera expects snow to be 18% gray, and chooses an exposure that will render it thus in your photo. You can use a hand-held incident light meter and meter for something that IS 18% gray - a common choice in a pinch is one's hand. Shooting at this setting will leave the snow "overexposed" from the camera's perspective, and just right from yours.
2) Film shooters, adjust your ISO dial. Set the film speed 1.5-2 times lower than the actual speed, and you will trick the camera into overexposing.
3) Most digital cameras have an exposure compensation tool, usually marked by the symbols "+/-." Set your compensation to something between +1 and +2, shoot, look at your LCD and / or your histograms, and adjust.
The article also notes that in some cases you might find that slightly grey snow offers a better sense of texture and contrast than it would in pure white; if you really want to make sure you get the photo you want, shoot each scene at a several different exposure levels.
1 comments on this Ink
On February 13, 2008, Peter Considine said ...
Actually, I've found it pretty simple – overexpose by two stops over your meter reading and whites come out pretty reliably white. Naturally, that only works if your not set to auto, but who would set their camera to auto anyway? =)
Otherwise, in Technique:
- Previously: The Ultimate Guide To Time-Lapse Photography
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