Snow question

[dalmorloson]

I'm very new to photography and don't do post processing (not because I don't agree with it...its a money thing). We have a lot of snow on the ground here. What are some good techniques to take a landscape shot where the subject (say its a darker object) is exposed correctly, but the snow not blown out? It seems that when I was photographing the kids sled riding, to get the people exposed correctly the snow had no definition.

[kianblue]

When photographing snow, I wait for the long blue afternoon shadows as it gives the snow quite the effect. I also use lower aperture setting, I am not a pro so I will be interested as well to hear what they have to say.

[Aleix]

Originally Posted by dalmorloson

I'm very new to photography and don't do post processing (not because I don't agree with it...its a money thing). We have a lot of snow on the ground here. What are some good techniques to take a landscape shot where the subject (say its a darker object) is exposed correctly, but the snow not blown out? It seems that when I was photographing the kids sled riding, to get the people exposed correctly the snow had no definition.

Well I can think of two other possibilities; one would be a graduated ND filter if you have one, but instead of placing the darker part on the sky, the other way around, so that it underexposes the snow in the foreground. Another alternative for still landscapes would be to use a tripod and take multiple exposures of the landscape by bracketing, and then blending the differently exposed images with software (like Photomatix (http://www.hdrsoft.com/download.html)); they've got a freeware version which might be enough for this.

Greetings

[Sterling]

Your camera may have some biult in post processing features that may work in a pinch. My camera has a feature that allows you to increase the exposure just in the shadow areas after the shot is taken. I'm not sure if Canons have a similar feature.

[dcclark]

For the record, Gimp is free and quite good for processing. There are many other free editors as well.

Personally, I usually have the problem of snow being UNDERexposed -- because it tricks the camera's meter with its brightness. In this case, I usually set exposure compensation to +1/3 or +2/3 stops, which can help bring out its whiteness and also avoid underexposing other objects.