Winter overexposure

[natgaines]

Good Evening all!

So, the BF will be flying in around the beginning of December and he wants to take a trip to Tahoe. I know some of you get snow right out the front door, and I've never shot in it before. I was curious if any of you have tips/suggestions on getting shots that are clear, capture the detail and don't get over exposed? I know my eyeballs hurt just looking at it and I would like to be prepared if I decide to go up there. I haven't seen snow in a few years let alone tried to take pictures in at so as always your thoughts are appreciated! And thanks goodness for two more weeks-boo on long distance relationships! :thumbsup:

Nat

[SmartWombat]

Not so much avoiding over-exposure, it's under-exposure you'll suffer.
The camera meter usually expects to see an average scene, not one that's dominated by white. So in snow you have to expose more to bring out the details of anything but the snow.

If you have a P&S camera look through the scenes settings for a Snow mode.


With a digital camera with a histogram display, make sure the big hump is to the right.
Most of the scene is going to be snow, if the camera thinks that's average you'll see a big hump in the middle of the histogram, and the snow will look light grey rather than pure white.

[mn shutterbug]

PAul is 100% on the money. If your camera has an EC control, depending on how much snow dominates the pic, an EC of +1 or more is common.

[natgaines]

Thank you both very much! Paul the tip with the histogram is a great one! I know my P&S has a snow mode, but I really wanted to get the D60 out there and try it out. I'll just have to experiment with the exposure stuff.

I'll have to do a bit more reading on EC control? Not sure what that is or how to adjust it but I have plenty of time. Not like it's going to snow in Sacramento Thanks again!

[Frog]

nat, have you seen the digitutor links in the Nikon forum? A wonderful tool for us Nikon owners. Easier than using a manual. It should tell you how the Exposure Compensatio(ec) is adjusted on the D60.
Nikon DSLR "Digitutor" Links

[Old Timer]

Nat check out some of PJ's snow stuff he is a master at it. You may even give him a PM and ask for him to direct you to some info on snow shooting. The only problem with that is getting him off the slopes long enough to answer.