Filter for snow help

[emily16]

Hi all,

Sorry yet another question!

I went to Canada snowboarding in March and was advised by jessops the best filter for snow was the Cokin P020 80A but found it turned my images very blue.

My brother is going in January and wants a filter good for snow. I went into jessops today and they said the best would be a ND 4.

So know i have heard 2 different things from the same shop and am totally confused! I wanted to get the filter for him for Christmas and i didnt like the way the P020 80A made the images so so blue!

Or are there any other filters good for the snow?

thanks

[silversnapper1]

I would have thought that a circular polarizer would help, especially if you have some nice blue skies. But you also need to adjust your camera settings. This video may help:-

http://www.youtube.com/user/PhotoGav.../4/OY1lljNhrYU

Steve.

[KeithT]

And here's a fourth variation. Don't bother with filters for snow. Snow will fool your meter into believing it is overexposing and you will end up with blue or grey snow because of underexposure. Just compensate by opening up two thirds of a stop or even one full stop. Check your histogram to make sure you haven't clipped the highlights and to ensure your shadow area is well away from the left hand wall.

No filters used in this shot:

[GeoffWessex]

Point Number 12 (or whatever) ...... You may get good advice from Jessop's occasionally, but ND Filter and Cooling Filter!?!?! What a lot of twaddle! The strange person in Jessop's must have been thinking your camera needed sunglasses! And why on earth would he suggest you want a Cooling Filter - which would make the snow even more blue. Even a Polarising filter is not much use, although it might detect more detail in snow at a distance. Just go with the excellent advice, particular slight over-exposure, of KeithT. The trick is to not let the whiteness of the snow dictate your exposure settings.

[OldBoy]

Just point out that a clear blue sky will be reflected in white snow, so any photos should have a slightly blue tinge which is normal. I don't use any filters for my snow shots to allow for this, as the image should reflect what your eyes see.

Example below.

[chris-p]

What Keith said...

[nick_gray]

Hi Keith, could you explain what you mean by " Just compensate by opening up two thirds of a stop or even one full stop." is this achieved with the exposure compensation dial. And does "opening up" mean that I should go +2/3 or -2/3?

Sorry for asking such a simple question.

Thanks

Nick

[littlebro]

Old boy, what a cracker of a shot I love it. My congratulations.

[GeoffWessex]

"Opening Up", in this instance, means over-exposing..... as you can't really over-expose in any of the Auto modes, so you'd either do it by giving the Exposure Compensation about one stop more exposure.... so it's "+1" or "+2/3rds" (some people suggest up to 1 and 2/3rds extra in bright conditions), or, if using Manual, overexposing by a similar amount. Try to shoot with Raw - then you can fine-tune the exposure and white balance later.

[KeithT]

Yes Nick. As Geoff has explained opening up in this instance means allowing more light in. You can set your exposure reading to give you an extra + or - compensation in 1/3 of a stop increments either way whatever the camera reading is telling you. This will overide the auto meter by the amount you adjust to. To save me going through it here just follow this link and it will explain all perfectly. It will help you to understand your camera better. http://cpn.canon-europe.com/content/...ompensation.do

Geoff is right about the + 1 and 2/3rds extra exposure for really bright scenes. You need to judge the brightness you are compensating for and set accordingly. If the shot is really important you can bracket shots starting at + 1/3rd through to 2 stops and choose the best.