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We may get snow here on the east coast next week and if so i'll probably take 1/2 day off work to get some shots of the local attactions in the white stuff.
Can anyone give me advise on taking photos of snow? I have heard mention of compensating with exposure but someone at work has also mentioned blue tinges.
Any help would be appreciated because we dont get much snow due to being so close to the sea so need to take advantage of any we do get.
Thanks in advance.
I'm a film user so my techniques won't necessarily apply to you but the blue casts are due to the colour temperature. These are especially strong in shaded area of a snowscene on a sunny day. I believe if you use RAW you can adjust when processing your file (digital users out there will no doubt correct me if I'm wrong).
As far as exposure is concerned, it's useful if you can take a mid-grey reading first. You then need to overexpose as a rule by between one and two stops depending on the brightness of the snow. Sunlit snow will probably need to be around + two stops (bear in mind you lose detail as of 2 stops upward). Hope that helps as a start.
When in doubt bracket your exposures. If there is a lot of snow content in the picture be aware that the snow could cause your AE to under-expose the shots and try to render the white snow as mid grey snow. Colour casts come when main lighting is reflected by the snow from the blue sky above as in the shade, or else directly from the sky rather than the warmer sun. Warmer in Colour temperature terms.
Lots of snow in my neck of the woods and quite a few shots of it in my portfolio
One trick I use is to make a b/w layer of the picture and fade it a lot over the original to hide the blue if it is bugging me.
It works nicely in most cases and as stated above take lots of shots at different exposures to get the best one
Allan
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