Why is it that a lot of 'Snowscapes' turn out disappointingly grey?
Quite simply, the most common and most important (but easliy cured) factor is
underexposure. All cameras are calibrated to read the light and tones from a scene and average them out to 18%, or 'middle' grey. This is generally fine for 'average', everyday scenes, where there is a broad range of lighting intensity, shadows, highlights and tones. Unfortunatley, snow scenes are far from average due to the predominantly (white) monochramatic nature of the scene. The camera, bless its little light meter, sees the bright/white scene and thinks it is doing us a favour by underexposing and averaging out the snow scene to mid grey. Fortuantley, it's very easy to cure, by manually overriding the cameras choice of setting, and OVERexposing with a little help from a feature found on all DSLR's and the majority of compacts, called
'Exposure Compensation'.
The Exposure Compensation feature allows us to override the cameras meter reading (which would produce an 'average') and enter either an increase or decrease in exposure. Most cameras will allow you to do this in either 1 full 'stop' (full increment of either a) time value/shutter speed, or b) aperture value/F.Stop) one half, or one third increments.
For most snow scenes, an exposure compensation (over) of 1 to 2 stops is required .
Locate your 'Exposure Compensation' feature on your camera - if you don't know what it is or where it is, then get yer maunual out, or Google your camera model. Get to know how use it, and how to change its settings in the field quickly. Being @rsed with this sort of thing is the difference between consistently good shots, and consistently pants shots!
Of course, this can be done just as easilly using the full manual settings on any camera that has them - simply take a reading, then increase by at least one stop - either time, or F.stop.
Another pain in the ass is snow scenes under heavy cloud and poor light. Very difficult to get decent results from this scenario. It's bad enough with decent light. Again though, in order to get anything vaguely better than a boring dollop of depressing greyness, then Exposure Compensation is yer man. White balance can also be a problem with this kind of scene, and if set to AWB (auto white balance) the camera often struggles to come up with a suitable setting. Even the more specific pre-sets seem to struggle. If your camera has a 'custom' white balance option (more on this in a mo) then that will likely be the way forward. I rarely bother though when faced with this kind of scene... as always, it's nigh-on impossible to make a silk purse from a sow's ear, or polish the turd that is a snowscape under heavy cloud! Best not to waste your battery power and leave it for another day.
Finally, there's the snowscape under bright sun and blue sky. The easiest scenario to do justice, but not without its problems. Firstly, don't forget to overexpose. Secondly, watch that colour balance... again, another situation where the various pre-set white balance settings on the camera will likely struggle. A strong blue cast often dominates with these kind of shots... if you want to know why, then get reading about 'Colour temperature'. Best then to employ the 'custom' white balance setting. The method of doing this will vary from model to model, but basically involves pointing the camera at the dominant element of your shot, or, an area that is white, or you wish to appear as white, and taking a reading, then saving this as your 'custom' white balance for the duration of your shoot.
The blue cast can sometimes, if not too overpowering, be a welcome bonus by adding another colour to the scene, and helping to convey a cool mood.
The images on here were just pulled off the web help illustrate this post a little - I'll try and get a couple of my own shots up as soon as poss.
How about seeing some of yer efforts on this thread then guys?
Photographing Snow.
SKB tackle supporter. I love Furled Leaders.
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