SHOOTING IN THE SNOW

So, I'll cut to the chase. The built-in light meter was designed to give us the "correct" exposure. Just ask any photo enthusiasts who love reading the camera's histogram to make sure they "got it correct."

And therein lies the problem when it comes to shooting in the snow. The built-in light meter, which drives the histogram, is designed to get us back to gray, or neutral. If I'm shooting snow in color, the meter will choose, or recommend that I choose, certain settings in order to give me gray, not white, snow. Without getting technical about it (you can articles on that), that is what it is designed to do.

The settings I am referring to depend on whether you're shooting aperture priority, shutter priority, or manual exposure. And they can be any combination of f/stops, shutter speeds, or ISO. 

So, therein lies the problem. Here is how I handle the problem of the built-in light meter trying to give me gray snow. Roughly 95% of the time, I prefer shooting in Aperture Priority. I will use that exposure setting to explain what I do. If you shoot shutter priority, you will need to focus your attention on your f/stop to get it right (I don't recommend that mode when photographing snow because, in a high percentage of cases, subject movement will be zero to almost none). If you are shooting in manual mode, obviously you will need to change any combination of f/stop, shutter speed, and ISO to get it right. 

Now, to my solution while shooting aperture priority. When the built-in meter gives me gray, it does so because it doesn't want me to "overexpose" the scene, which is white. But, it doesn't know that snow is supposed to look white. It is designed to "think" that I need gray snow. And there is the kicker. It will, technically, underexpose the beautiful white snow. For example, if gives me, say a shutter speed of 1/250, I know it's going to look gray. So, I will need to change my shutter speed to anywhere between 1/125 or maybe 1/60 (or anything in-between), depending on the scenario, in order to get white snow. In other words, I'll slow down the shutter to allow more light to hit the sensor, which will in turn lighten/whiten the snow. The common term for doing that is a misnomer--we usually say explain those steps by saying something like, "I had to overexpose the scene by a +1 stop." In actuality, we aren't overexposing the scene (the white snow). What we are doing is overexposing the exposure the light meter gave us. I talk back to me built-in light meter by saying, "No.No. I know what you're trying to do. I don't want white snow. At that point, I, not the meter, am in control of how I want my snow photos to look. 

Following are some examples, and what I did. Keep my explanation above in mind when you read about what adjustments I made (+1, +2, etc.).

For this image, I only made a +2/3 stop adjustment. In other words, I gave it 66% more light than the meter thought I needed. It's not about how much light I need, but how much I want. There's a big difference between the two. If, as in this scene, there are a lot of areas in the scene that are darker than the snow in the scene, as in the leaves and plants in this scene, the adjustment can be minimal, like a +2/3 stop. In other situations, as I'll show later, the adjustments needed are greater.

This retro bicycle half-buried in snow got my attention. I had to increase the exposure to 1 1/3 for this scene. As you can see, snow covered most of the scene. The lighting also plays a part. A bright sunny day might require more of an increase in exposure than an overcast sky. 

This was during one of my winter workshops in Rocky Mountain National Park. I loved the cute family scene of a mom and daughter snowshoeing in the park. This took a +1 overexposure.

Here is an extreme case where there was a lot of snow in the scene. I had to go to a + 1 2/3 to get what I wanted! That's 166% more light than the meter thought I needed for the "correct" exposure.

By comparison, I only needed to go +1 stop for this mission in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

I included this last one to show that, yes, sometimes I don't have to make any adjustments at all if the lighting throughout the scene doesn't require any adjustments to the exposure. This image was shot at -0-.

There are no formulas to memorize when shooting in the snow. But, it's not as scary or intimidating as this might sound. Just remember that art is subjective; photography is art. Additionally, photographer preference, also subjective, will determine how much of an adjustment to make. And, let me throw in another factor. Not all cameras are calibrated the same. I know this after years of offering field workshops and 1-on-1 lessons. A +1 adjustment to my camera might look similar to your same image shot at +1 1/3 with your camera. 

What I do is estimate how much adjustment I think I'll need and take my shot. I then display the image on my back screen and decide if that's what I want. Let's say I shot it at +1. If it looks a bit too bright, I reshoot the scene at +2/3. If it looks a little too grayish, I may reshoot it at +1 1/3 and see how that looks. It's subjective, and that is perfectly okay. There is no such thing as the "correct" exposure. The right exposure is what we should be shooting for, pun intended.

Have fun out there!!