Legit

[Photo-John]

For those of you who saw my powder crash sequence post earlier today, this is what it's supposed to look like

[Homer]

Awsome shot, love how he's coming out of the snow.

Jim

[Old Timer]

Wonderful exposure control under what I would term very difficult conditions.

[SmartWombat]

Exposure control and PJ's secret Photoshop sauce, I think

[Photo-John]

Exposure control and PJ's secret Photoshop sauce, I think

Yeah, good exposure and good processing are really important for snow sports photos. I shoot tests and check the histogram to make sure I'm not blowing the highlights. If you blow the highlights the photos will be crap. You don't want them to be too dark, either. Since all cameras will underexpose a scene like this, you have to make some manual adjustment. I always shoot in manual exposure mode and adjust the shutter speed and aperture myself.

When I get the photos on the computer I convert the RAW in Lightroom and then fine tune in Photoshop. Fine tuning means color and contrast adjustments using masked adjustment layers and my secret sauce. It's not actually secret. I just haven't written about it yet. For most of my snow photos I also use a special Highlight Resolver script I got from Uwe Steinmueller. It really helps me hold highlight detail in snow photos. You can learn more about about the script and buy it on Uwe's site, OutbackPhoto.com. Uwe sells it for $25 and if you do a lot of snow photos, I think it's worth it:

Uwe Steinmueller's Highlight Resolver Photoshop Script >>

[Lori11]

Oh I love that shot! It just feels cold!