Snow Portraits

[Diana1979]

I would like to take good pictures of my kids in the snow, but the snow is so white it washes out any detail and causes my camera to read the light differently.

I took these pictures yesterday when it was still light enough outside to see, but my camera didn't read it very well.

http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x165/diananeill/IMG_2667Small.jpg
This one was taken on AUTO.
f/7.1
1/100
ISO 400
No Flash


http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x165/diananeill/IMG_2673Small.jpg
This one was taken on APERTURE with the +/- changed to +2
f/4
1/20
ISO 100
Flash


Any suggestions on how to make the snow balls stand out more instead of blending in with the ground withOUT using software?

[Sid]

Take your last photo there and replace the sky with one from the first 2, shoudl make a huge impact on the photo. Also watch out for putting up 3 photos.... apparently its against the rules.

[snapdragon]

what time of day was this taken ? I just googled ,and came up with this ,you might like to check it out http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/snow.htm. not what I do but they say it works . Good luck .

[ALSto]

As Sid suggested you could blend the two depending on the software your using however they are not exactly the same frame composition (use the electric poles as reference). Also, you could try adjusting the white & mid tones with the histogram. I would probably work with the second one myself and try to add fill light & decrease the brightness around the foreground snowballs.

Tricky... but possible.

Allen...

[Diana1979]

I am trying to get some good pictures for entering a photo contest. I cannot use software to manipulate the pictures, they have to be the original.

These pictures were taken at around 5:30pm.

[ALSto]

Ah... Yup I got you... I don't think there is much you can do to the above pictures in camera. If you were to try again today, make sure your camera is in Spot Meter mode and try metering on her pink hat/face area and recompose or if smaller aperture and you want to capture the background in detail, try metering on the dark of the grey sky and recompose the shot.

If you need to keep the flash on because it's too dark, the white of the snow will always reflect and cause problems with reflected light. The other thing you could do is trying taking the shot from down looking up thus avoiding direct light from the background.

Allen...

[clockdoc]

Snow scenes can be frustrating. You have to be able to trickyour meter into metering for the area you want instead of the whole matrix. In you examples, you not only had the bright snow but also the setting sun to contend with. So watch you background, use spot metering as ALSto suggested and bracket by a couple of stops so you can have some choices. If using the spot meter is not an option, meter on your own hand and use that as a starting point.
While it is true that onboard flash may wash out the snow, you can try diffusing it with cloth (don't let anything touch the flash tube itself.) Does you camera allow setting of the flash output? Alternatively, turn off the flash and use a large white cardboard for a bounce light reflector. The windshield silver sun blockers also make good reflectors. They need to be fairly close to the subject. Good luck with your snow shots!

[Nathan deGargoyle]

I got the impression from another thread that you're not too keen on PP Diana, but a coupkle of minutes on GIMP turned your first shot into

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b209/IanGM/DianasSnowman.jpg

Colour balance to get as close as I could to white snow then auto white balance.

[Diana1979]

Ok, I tried again today. This time I made sure the sun was shining when I took the picture. The color is a lot better, but the picture is blurry. I think I was shaking the camera. It was cold outside . . . .
http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x165/diananeill/IMG_2676.jpg

[ALSto]

There ya go! Much better... Different time of day then the others.Probably right on the cold for shaking :)

I noticed you have less of a depth of field in this shot. You probably could have taken at a higher speed which would reduce a little of the brightness on the snow and may have been less blurry. Did you use a spot meter setting?

You didn't just take one shot did you?...

Snow scenes are pretty tough while sunny but do render nice shots. We just got about 12" of snow today so hopefully I can go out & play in the snow tomorrow.

Allen...

[netbymatt]

That's a great idea for a picture. I had 2 suggestions for what to do without software to help the snow stand out, but you got both of them in your second shot. I'll explain them anyways for the benefit of others.

The different (lower) perspective in the second photo lets the sky and field in the background creates contrast between the snowman and the snow that was on the ground behind it in the first photo. It's often a good idea to put yourself at the same level as your subject to get a more creative shot. Remember we're all used to looking at the world standing up, 5-6 ft. off the ground, offering a slightly different view can make a lot of difference.

One other suggestion I had for making the snow stand out would be to take the shot with your light source to your camera's left or right. This way, there will be shadows on one side of the snowman, creating some contrast against the snow on the ground. In your first shot, the sunset tells me it was directly in front of you.

[Clockdoc I]

I am new to digital but I have taken many photos of snow with a film camera and have had some nice shots with under exposing the shot. I would also try to take it with the sun more behind you, but not directly.

[clockdoc]

A couple of things to note here. Your shutter speed was 1/2000 second and your aperture was f/1.8 with your 50mmm lens. I suspect your autofocus system had a difficult time finding a good line of contrast detection so the overall focus was off, compounded by minimal depth of field and not camera shake.

[peeperita]

your last image is a good example of how critique improves our shots....

i think the blur came from your camera setting focus on the "snowman's" belly.....one way to possibly overcome that is to set your focus on the child's head by depressing your shutter button halfway and then repositioning your frame to where you like it.....

it is also possible that your depth of field was too narrow, because i feel that you wanted both your child and the snowman body to be in focus....if that is the case, narrow your aperture a bit and set the focus on the part of the snow body that is closest to the camera.....bracket your apertures and pick which reflects best the focus you want....

thanks for sharing

peeper

[Diana1979]

Did you use a spot meter setting?

You didn't just take one shot did you?...



I used the "Evaluative Metering" setting on my camera. I've played around with these settings a little bit, but I haven't been able to really tell a difference in each one. I have that one, partial metering, and center-weighted average metering.

I took many shots, but at the wrong angle. The one that is blurry was taken with the sun behind me, whereas the others were taken with the sun in front of me--didn't work well.

[Diana1979]

One other suggestion I had for making the snow stand out would be to take the shot with your light source to your camera's left or right. This way, there will be shadows on one side of the snowman, creating some contrast against the snow on the ground. In your first shot, the sunset tells me it was directly in front of you.

Yes, that is a good idea. I should have had my daughter make the snowman somewhere else, like the back yard. To get a shot with the light on the side, it would show houses in the background and I didn't want that.

[Diana1979]

narrow your aperture a bit and set the focus on the part of the snow body that is closest to the camera.....bracket your apertures and pick which reflects best the focus you want....



Depth of field has been difficult for me. I can't seem to find the right one. I would like to have the person in my picture clear, but the background blurry. It seems like all the pictures that I've tried to do that with, either the background isn't as blurry as I like, or part of the person is a little blurry. Any suggestions for this?

[snapdragon]

Depth of field has been difficult for me. I can't seem to find the right one. I would like to have the person in my picture clear, but the background blurry. It seems like all the pictures that I've tried to do that with, either the background isn't as blurry as I like, or part of the person is a little blurry. Any suggestions for this?

Here is a link to a camera simulater that shows you what f/ to use with what shutter speed ,http://www.photonhead.com/simcam/shutteraperture.php . I think with the snow 1/ 250 sec , or 1/125 sec will keep enough light out with f4 should give you good results .

[Sid]

I think it still could benefit from some manipulation. They would never notice some tweaks. Yes you can over process something, and sometimes thats the look people are going for which is great. However some manipulation such as fixing brightness/contrast, sharpening, reducing noise, correcting levels or curves, colour balance, etc should not be a problem.

You quote "The best photo is the one you don't have to change with a software program." is interesting. :confused:

Rarely if ever are photos taken without any manipulation, specifically the ones I mentioned above. Even when everything was processed in a darkroom there was still manipulation, its just that now instead of the darkroom we use photoshop, hell even the names of a lot of the tools in photoshop come from darkroom tools and techniques that photoshop duplicates digitally. Granted you can be sure of a lot of things in-camera and a digital camera does take a lot of the finesse and trial & error out of the process. But I see that as a good thing. Now we can have forums like this one so that anyone with a camera can go out and start shooting right away and get better though a trial by fire, makes for a much more creative community overall :)

Sorry for the rant haha :D

[jiminyClickit]

Diana1979,

You are a better person for making ethical choices:

"I am trying to get some good pictures for entering a photo contest. I cannot use software to manipulate the pictures, they have to be the original."

[Sid]

Well there ya go. I don't see sharpening a photo as outside the moral barometer, but to each their own.