1st attempt at snow pic with grey card

[chopperward]

Hiya

I'm from england so we seldom get any snow! I have been reading up on what is required to take a good snow snap and purchased a grey card to see if i could take a crisp white snow shot. this is my 1st attempt.

the first shot was taken from the reading from the grey card. it is 1/30 f11.

the second reading was from the program mode @ 1/100 f11

what is the feedback on these snaps?

i dont know if i was holding the grey card wrong. I just held it 12 inches away. there didnt appear to be any glare coming from the card. what is the best angle to hold it at?

any feedback welcome

[juzzus]

Hi chopperward , i think first of all this scene is not evenly lighted ... there are shadows and highlights as well . I assume you took the reading from the grey card within the shadow area ??? As such the shadow will appear well lighted but the highlights will be overly exposed . And what metering system did you use when you meter the grey card ? Usually a spot meter will be a prefered choice , if not then try to fill the grey card within your screen ... I suggest you take reading on both highlight n shadow area then decide how much details you want to retain from the highlight areas and how much you want in the shadow areas ... from there you work out the reading best to your requirement .. jus my 2 cents worth of thots

[Chunk]

You need to have the gray card in the same light as the subject.

[chopperward]

thanks alot,

i used the centre weighted from my canon 20d. i filled the viewfinder with the card. basically it's prob best to take snow shots on an overcast day. thanks

[dbutler]

I tend to bracket my shots, using matrix. I start of at 0, then +1, then up to +2 (by 1/3's). . Somewhere in there, I get the shot I really want. Or two or three shots that I can sandwich together to get the shot I really want.

[Sebastian]

Chopperward,

Forget about the grey card, it's just a waste of time. Use your center weighted meter, fill it with the BRIGHTEST snow in the scene, and set your meter to be about 1.5 stops over what the camera is telling you is "right" there. To retain detail in whites, you are safe to be about 1.5 stops over the medium grey your camera wants to expose at. If you want shadows (blacks) with detail in them, do the same thing, except meter 1.5 to 2 stops UNDER your camera's meter when pointing it at the shadow area of the scene.