controlling exposure of snow

hey guys...
I been to niagara falls recently....it was awesome trip...but the area
was full of snow. I took plenty of snaps, majority of them having
snow. But i saw that all snaps wer over-exposed due to excessive
reflection of light from snow. Because of that other objects in the
photo wer dark or under-exposed.
I had PS camera that time (olympus)

cud someone pls gimme some tips on how to avoid such things in the
future
thnx

CIVILian wrote:
hey guys...
I been to niagara falls recently....it was awesome trip...but the area
was full of snow. I took plenty of snaps, majority of them having
snow. But i saw that all snaps wer over-exposed due to excessive
reflection of light from snow. Because of that other objects in the
photo wer dark or under-exposed.
I had PS camera that time (olympus)

cud someone pls gimme some tips on how to avoid such things in the
future
thnx


If your camera has "exposure compensation", then to expose correctly for
snow (or a sandy beach) you would have to dial it back by a couple of stops.
Generally -2 EV (compensation set to -2) is used on sand or snow to
under-expose compared to what the camera's meter is telling it that it's
settings should be.
Considering that it's digital that you're using, try it out a couple of
times (changing the compensation up and down) to see what effect it has.

On Mar 21, 9:36*am, dj_nme wrote:
CIVILian wrote:
hey guys...
I been to niagara falls recently....it was awesome trip...but the area
was full of snow. I took plenty of snaps, majority of them having
snow. But i saw that all snaps wer over-exposed due to excessive
reflection of light from snow. Because of that other objects in the
photo wer dark or under-exposed.
I had PS camera that time (olympus)

cud someone pls gimme some tips on how to avoid such things in the
future
thnx


If your camera has "exposure compensation", then to expose correctly for
snow (or a sandy beach) you would have to dial it back by a couple of stops.
Generally -2 EV (compensation set to -2) is used on sand or snow to
under-expose compared to what the camera's meter is telling it that it's
settings should be.


What?!

That is exactly the *opposite* of what one "generally" should do in
highly "backlit" or high-key situations like snow or sand scenes.

--
YOP...

In message
,
Nervous Nick writes

If your camera has "exposure compensation", then to expose correctly for
snow (or a sandy beach) you would have to dial it back by a couple of stops.
Generally -2 EV (compensation set to -2) is used on sand or snow to
under-expose compared to what the camera's meter is telling it that it's
settings should be.


What?!

That is exactly the *opposite* of what one "generally" should do in
highly "backlit" or high-key situations like snow or sand scenes.

--

Correct - over expose for snow. See:

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/snow.htm

Regards,
--
Neil

(Nervous Nick) wrote in
:

On Mar 21, 9:36*am, dj_nme wrote:


If your camera has "exposure compensation", then to expose
correctly for snow (or a sandy beach) you would have to dial it
back by a couple of stops.
Generally -2 EV (compensation set to -2) is used on sand or snow to
under-expose compared to what the camera's meter is telling it that
it's settings should be.

What?!

That is exactly the *opposite* of what one "generally" should do in
highly "backlit" or high-key situations like snow or sand scenes.

Well, he did say "to expose correctly for snow".

Maybe that's exactly what he meant: correctly exposed snow.

--
Bert Hyman | St. Paul, MN |

"CIVILian" wrote in message
...
hey guys...
I been to niagara falls recently....it was awesome trip...but the area
was full of snow. I took plenty of snaps, majority of them having
snow. But i saw that all snaps wer over-exposed due to excessive
reflection of light from snow. Because of that other objects in the
photo wer dark or under-exposed.
I had PS camera that time (olympus)

cud someone pls gimme some tips on how to avoid such things in the
future
thnx


I think you may have things backwards. Snow will normally be underexposed by
the camera due to the light reflecting off the snow. You say your pictures are
overexposed with other objects in the photo being underexposed. Is it
possible that you were trying to photograph the dark objects with the snow in
the background, because that would make the snow overexposed. You don't
mention wether you are shooting film or digital. The problem is that the
camera or film is unable to capture the range of llight that the human eye can
see. You have to either expose for the snow and let the dark objects be darker
or expose for the dark objects and let the snow be blown out.

If you give more info on what camera you have and post some pictures to show
what you are talking about I'm sure someone can give you more specific advice.

"CIVILian" wrote in message
...
hey guys...
I been to niagara falls recently....it was awesome trip...but the area
was full of snow. I took plenty of snaps, majority of them having
snow. But i saw that all snaps wer over-exposed due to excessive
reflection of light from snow. Because of that other objects in the
photo wer dark or under-exposed.
I had PS camera that time (olympus)

cud someone pls gimme some tips on how to avoid such things in the
future
thnx


Hi.

You should have used your "review" LCD to check the results while taking the
pictures.

You would them have had a chance of trying to do something to correct the
obviously incorrect exposure being given by the camera meter.

I don't know what controls you have on your camera to vary the exposure, so
I can't be specific, but I would expect that your user manual would have
some suggestions for "Snow" scenes.

Roy G

"CIVILian" a écrit dans le message de news:
...
hey guys...
I been to niagara falls recently....it was awesome trip...but the area
was full of snow. I took plenty of snaps, majority of them having
snow. But i saw that all snaps wer over-exposed due to excessive
reflection of light from snow. Because of that other objects in the
photo wer dark or under-exposed.
I had PS camera that time (olympus)

cud someone pls gimme some tips on how to avoid such things in the
future
thnx

Come back during the summer :-)

"CIVILian" wrote in message
...
hey guys...
I been to niagara falls recently....it was awesome trip...but the area
was full of snow. I took plenty of snaps, majority of them having
snow. But i saw that all snaps wer over-exposed due to excessive
reflection of light from snow. Because of that other objects in the
photo wer dark or under-exposed.
I had PS camera that time (olympus)

cud someone pls gimme some tips on how to avoid such things in the
future
thnx

86 the Oly, get Nikon. Problem solved.


--
Focus

On Mar 22, 2:32 am, Bert Hyman wrote:
(Nervous Nick) wrote :

On Mar 21, 9:36 am, dj_nme wrote:

If your camera has "exposure compensation", then to expose
correctly for snow (or a sandy beach) you would have to dial it
back by a couple of stops.
Generally -2 EV (compensation set to -2) is used on sand or snow to
under-expose compared to what the camera's meter is telling it that
it's settings should be.

What?!

That is exactly the *opposite* of what one "generally" should do in
highly "backlit" or high-key situations like snow or sand scenes.

Well, he did say "to expose correctly for snow".

Maybe that's exactly what he meant: correctly exposed snow.

--
Bert Hyman

That doesn't help... Snow is a fairly bright white, iirc... (O:

So to 'correctly' expose it should appear NOT as a neutral grey, but
as a fairly bright white (hopefully not so bright as to lose the
detail), eg around zones 7-9 if you are into that sort of thing. That
is actually 2-4 stops above neutral grey, so even a +2 stop ev
adjustment may be a bit short.

Getting back to the op's issue, the advice to overexpose by 1-3 stops
is correct, depending on the subject matter, but there are several
complications...

1. Some cameras use a 'scene recognition' algorithm to recognise
scenes which probably need over exposure (sand, snow..) or
underexposure (night shots..) - so there may already be some
compensation going on. And is it (can it use) averaging, centre-
weighted or spot metering?

2. Out of the box, many cameras are set with high contrast levels - if
it is adjustable, then in this environment it should be set towards
the minimum.

3. Even the best cameras will struggle with the contrast range in a
snow scene, as digital sensors and film are not able to cope with
extremes of light and dark in one scene.

So drop the contrast setting if the camera has one. Then experiment
with ev adjustments to find out what your camera is capable of and
what gives the best results. And if possible, bracket like crazy or
use HDR techniques.