Overcast, snowfield -- exposure a challenge

[trailmaven]

With heavy overcast but an expanse of snow covered fields, it is both dark and bright. I really struggled with the exposure settings for these conditions. I set the white balance to "overcast", left ISO on auto and tried to adjust each individual shot. I found that the auto-ISO changed with minor changes in position.

Post processing in contrast makes the biggest difference in this image (not shown). what adjustments should I make to the shot settings? Histograms aren't a lot of help with this much white.

[trailmaven]

...forgot EXIF info:
Canon EOS Rebel XSi
Shutter: 1/200
Aperture f/9.0
Exposure bias: 0.0
Focal length: 18mm
Metering: Spot
ISO: 200

[charlesj68]

The camera is trying to adjust the exposure to 18% grey, the baseline that defines "medium brightness". Since the scene is so filled with brightness, that "medium brightness" assumption is broken. There are a couple quick ways to address this.

1. Meter your scene off an 18% grey card. Since the day is overcast, the light is pretty much the same everywhere. Hold out a grey card, meter off it and lock your exposure; then go back to your scene, compose and shoot. If you don't have a grey card and you happen to light-skinned, then you can sometimes successfully cheat by using the back of your hand.

2. Option two, bump up your exposure compensation by 2/3 to 1 full stop and then meter the scene as usual.

[Bluenoser]

Over expose anywhere from 1 1/2 - 2 full stops for snow.

Experiment until you find the right exposure.

[EasternSierra]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

Over expose anywhere from 1 1/2 - 2 full stops for snow.

Experiment until you find the right exposure.

Yea, for snow scenes, I tend to compensate about +1.3-2.0stops. This basically tells your camera that it should not be exposing for neutral, it should be exposing for fairly bright white. Typically, the shadows will fairly well "fall in line" from there...

[leviathan]

The other option is to see how it looks in B&W.

[EasternSierra]

Originally Posted by leviathan

The other option is to see how it looks in B&W.

That's not going to magically turn grey snow white...

Unfortunately, it's underexposed. If shot in RAW, the OP *might* be able to push the exposure and recover some of the brightness in the snow, but conversion to B&W won't fix an underexposed shot.