snow photography

[richlewis]

Hi all
Due to the recent snow downfall I thought i would take advantage and get some shots in, I did find however that there was a blue tint to the scenes, I used AWB but only had limited time due to the time of day so was unable to play with the settings, any tips on settings for these conditions??
many thanks
Happy Daze

[wizzo]

Hi daze. Snow scenes will often result in underexposed shots if you're not carefull with your metering. Try taking a meter reading from a neutral object within the scene, using 'spot' or 'centre weighted' metering, then re-compose the shot. Also consider bracketing your shots (taking a couple of pictures one or two stops under and over the cameras suggested exposure value). Your camera, may well have a facility for doing this for you automatically. Also remember that snow is very refective and can reflect a bright, deep blue sky. Post processing may help here, but I'm not your best source for helping with that. Bright white scenes can fool your camera's meter and playing around with your white balance setting may help reduce colour casts or cause them if desired. There are other more technically minded people on the forum who will be able to explain that better. A light source that produces a colour temperature above that of pure white light may cause a blue tint. A colour temperature below that of white light can cause a red or orange cast. I hope this makes sense Wizzo

[nigel_b]

What sort of camera is it? Quite a few modern compacts have a "snow" setting which should presumably set the correct white balance and exposure compensation?

[Bruce Williams]

If your camera does have a "Snow" scene mode, then as Nigel suggests this is probably your best bet. If it doesn't then it may have a set "Custom White Balance" or "Manual White Balance" option. If it has this facility then simply select this option and point your camera at a clean, shadowless area of snow (make sure there's nothing else in the frame) and press the shutter to set your white balance (might be a good idea to read your manual on this procedure). Once set it should give good colour for all your snow scenes in that location for long enough to take quite a few shots.

If it has neither of these options and its a cloudy day you may get away with setting your white balance to cloudy - try it and see. If it's a sunny day then your images will have a blue tint and you may need to adjust colour in post processing.

The point that wizzo makes about under exposure is a good one. If there is a lot of snow in your scene I suggest you using exposure compensation to increase exposure by +2/3 stop or even in extremely bright cases as much as +2 whole stops. Best to take a few shots and check the results. Or do as wizzo suggests and try bracketed exposures.

Good luck with your shooting.

Bruce

[Geoff F]

This discussion may also prove useful White Balance on snow

[richlewis]

Hay Many Thanks
I'm using a canon 400d so I have the facility to use the W/B BRT and the custom W/B setting so will play around with these, hopefully I will have more time over the next few days to get it right, many thaks for you replies
richlewis
Happy Daze

[Geoff F]

I just thought of an idea today (it had to happen sometime!)

For best results when choosing a Custom White Balance, always use a proper WB 15% grey card to make the setting. But most people don't carry one around with them.

I have frequently used other approximately correct white items (dull not bright white) like kitchen paper or a well used handkerchief, even the white piece of card from inside a coffee jar lid. All with reasonable success.

Then I though, why not meter directly from the white snow? So I photographed a piece of flat snow which was in light shade and appeared to be very slightly grey. Then used that to set the Custom White balance.

Yes, it isn't the correct method and you should really use a correct WB Card instead. But it gave much better results than using the AWB setting. So if you are having trouble with snow scenes developing a blue tint this might be worth a go.

I have added a bit of brightness and sharpening but haven't altered the colour settings. So here is an example:



Just follow the Arrows!

ps. The snow is a bit thin here because so far we have only had a few flakes on one occasion.

[wizzo]

[quote=Geoff F;709465]

For best results when choosing a Custom White Balance, always use a proper WB 15% grey card to make the setting. But most people don't carry one around with them.


That's exactly what I was trying to think of the other day Geoff. It's something I should carry in my gadget beg. Right off to Jessops! Wizzo

[Stephen Raff]

If you shoot RAW (and this is one of the good reason why you should) then simply leave your setting to AWB and adjust afterward in the RAW conversion or make tweaks using levels in PS.

Most RAW converters have a colour selector tool, find a neutral looking shade in the image and adjust to taste (works best with some sort of loupe or zoomed in).

In PS you can use the levels and select from the RGB drop down the colour thats showing as a cast and adjust the middle value very slightly say from 1.00 to 0.96 to remove the cast.

You can do these with JPEGs but its far more effective with RAW.

Hope that helps
Stephen

[Stephen Raff]

For a starting point with the colour selector I choose an area with a RGB value of about R43% G43% B43%, that get me pretty close most times.

Stephen