How to take good snow shots?

[taisuibao]

Hello,

I am planning a trip to the rockies, do you haave any good tips on how to take good snow portraits? Or snow mountain photos? Especially the exposure, since the snow and the sun will be bright.

Do I need a PL (polarized lens)? What would be some of the setting for my camera?

Any tip would be appreciated.

I own a Canon 50D, lens 24-70mm f2,8, 50mm f1.8.

[nikonian]

Study the reason for false readings on meters

[Andy Price]

Hi taisuibao,

You can get some brilliant snow images when there is sunshine by using a circular polariser, but for those times when it is over cast you can do without any filters or polarisers.
The most important thing is to set your exposure to +0.7 or +1.0 this will enable you to get those great images without the snow having a blue tinge.

Have fun and happy shooting.

[OldBoy]

To be honest, most modern DSLR cameras manage to take great photos in snow without much trouble, without needing to play around with different settings or using filters. When you take a shot check your histogram and adjust as required. At this time of year, the low winter sun makes things easier, as the light is more forgiving.

[flake]

If you want to capture falling snow then use a flash gun, even in daylight.

[Forseti]

Originally Posted by OldBoy

To be honest, most modern DSLR cameras manage to take great photos in snow without much trouble, without needing to play around with different settings or using filters.

Well OldBoy, I'm going to have to disagree with you here - in fact capturing good snow scenes with a digital camera isn't anywhere near as good as it was/is with film and that is down to the differences in metering systems. Point the camera at snow, lots of it, and the metering system will attempt to record it at 18% grey resulting in less than white snow due to under exposing. As a consequence details in the shadow areas will almost certainly be lost. On the other hand, expose for the shadows and the snow will be completely blown out. Snow is also highly reflective causing even more problems and here a polarising filter most certainly does help.

There really is no single solution to the problem of snow scenes other than by trial and error, In my experience, and this is from someone who is often knee deep in snow for at least a couple of months of the year, more often than not dialling in one or two stops of exposure compensation is almost always the case and sometimes you might need two and a half stops. Keep an eye on the histogram and try to keep it over to the right hand side as much as possible without pushing the histogram off the scale. If you're taking shots of people posing and the like a bit of fill-in flash won't go amiss either.

Also, don't forget that at higher snow elevations (mountains) the light temperature can range from anywhere between 11K to 18K, Kelven - a lot higher than for your average sunny day in the valley. This is the prime reason for that blue looking snow that Andy mentions. This should only concern you if you are shooting jpegs really because when shooting RAW this can easily be corrected at the processing stage.

[nikonian]

Originally Posted by Andy Price

Hi taisuibao,

You can get some brilliant snow images when there is sunshine by using a circular polariser, but for those times when it is over cast you can do without any filters or polarisers.
The most important thing is to set your exposure to +0.7 or +1.0 this will enable you to get those great images without the snow having a blue tinge.

Have fun and happy shooting.

Errm, pure virgin snow has a blue tinge. Remember your Ma when shee used a blue dolly when she washed the sheets.

[nikonian]

Originally Posted by Forseti

Well OldBoy, I'm going to have to disagree with you here - in fact capturing good snow scenes with a digital camera isn't anywhere near as good as it was/is with film and that is down to the differences in metering systems. Point the camera at snow, lots of it, and the metering system will attempt to record it at 18% grey resulting in less than white snow due to under exposing. As a consequence details in the shadow areas will almost certainly be lost. On the other hand, expose for the shadows and the snow will be completely blown out. Snow is also highly reflective causing even more problems and here a polarising filter most certainly does help.

There really is no single solution to the problem of snow scenes other than by trial and error, In my experience, and this is from someone who is often knee deep in snow for at least a couple of months of the year, more often than not dialling in one or two stops of exposure compensation is almost always the case and sometimes you might need two and a half stops. Keep an eye on the histogram and try to keep it over to the right hand side as much as possible without pushing the histogram off the scale. If you're taking shots of people posing and the like a bit of fill-in flash won't go amiss either.

Also, don't forget that at higher snow elevations (mountains) the light temperature can range from anywhere between 11K to 18K, Kelven - a lot higher than for your average sunny day in the valley. This is the prime reason for that blue looking snow that Andy mentions. This should only concern you if you are shooting jpegs really because when shooting RAW this can easily be corrected at the processing stage.

Remember your stops. The difference between black and white is five stops. Take a reading then OPEN up 2 and 1/2 stops, works every time. Assuming of course the shot is mostly virgin snow.

[KeithT]

The digital camera meter will always record 18% grey unlike the old film days, and if it's very bright will close down to suit. This means that a shot with a large expanse of snow in it will usually underexpose by around 2 stops. Nikonian gives the answer to this above, though I would probably bracket from + 1.5 to + 2.5 stops to give me the best oportunity of getting it right.

With digital cameras you have the benefit of the histogram to prevent clipping the highlights, and it should be one area of digital imaging you should get very familiar with.

[OldBoy]

Proof of the pudding!



[IMG]
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2564/4190567785_8a40d07a3f.jpg?v=0[/IMG]

[img]
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4007/4190567783_ae4aa77d03.jpg?v=0[/img]

[img]
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2748/4190567777_4763dcf90e.jpg?v=0[/img]

[img]
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4048/4190567775_df2c758faa.jpg?v=0[/img]

These examples were shot with a D3 with exposure set to -0.7.