camera settings

[ron moore]

hi everyone
I am relatively new to digital photography, my camera is a 500d which I am slowly getting the hang of.
I live in a mobile home in the middle of woods and fields. At the moment we are completely
snowed in and I would like to take some pics of sorrounding area.
Can anyone give me any tips on what settings would be best for shooting in the snow.

regards ron moore

[Cathus]

I'd go AV mode, F8-F11 if you want most of the scene in focus, lowest number if you want something in focus near the camera & the rest of the scene a little blurred.

Add some exposure compensation maybe 1.3 stops (or 4 clicks of the wheel to the right to make the pointer which normally sits under the '0' move 4 spaces to the right. This will make the snow brighter as leaving it on normal metering will turn it grey.
But if you have someone taking up a large proportion of the shot you might have to take the exposure down to +2/3 stop (or 2 clicks).
As always though, play around with the exposure compensation & check your shots on the screen to make sure they are not too white (you could turn on the highlight warning in your menu & if too much of the scene flashes black, this means those bits are overexposed so just take a bit of exposure comp off)

Whatever settings you have, make sure you keep the shutter speed above the longest focal length you are shooting at, so 50mm keep it to 1/60 or faster, at 200mm keep it to 1/200 or 1/250

[OldBoy]

Good advice from Cathus, but would just add if you can view the histogram on your camera, then use that to make sure you have a nice spread over the scene after taking the shot. Also remember, after taking the shot you can adjust brightness on the computer if needed.

[KeithT]

Another + for Cathus' reply. AV has always been my preferred MO and I use f8 - f11 for most of my work. My lens is f4 at its widest aperture all the way through the zoom range, so those aperture settings are the optimum for my lens. Your optimum can be roughly calculated by closing down 2 or 3 stops from the widest aperture of your lens. For snow I usually overexpose anywhere from 2/3rds of a stop to a full 2 stops depending on brightness, but as Oldboy mentions, the histogram is your best friend here. Try to keep the right hand (highlights) close to the side without climbing the wall and the left side (shadows) away from the side a tad. Take several shots at varying exposures and choose the best. If you shoot raw you can adjust in ACR or whatever converter you use, but getting it as near as damn it in the camera is always best in my view. Have fun with it and don't let it become a chore.

[ron moore]

thanks everyone for all your comments.
I am going out this morning with my camera so I can try to take some pics with all the info you have all
given me


regards ron moore