Tips and tricks: Exposure compensation for snow

[Krzys]

I am going to be shooting Tri-x at its box speed of 400asa in snow. I have never photographed snow before so I am pretty much clueless as to how much I need to compensate for exposure.

I will be using an Olympus XA which has a +1.5 compensation function and manual asa selection (I could shoot the Tri-X at 200asa and develop at 400 for example) and a Ricoh GR1 which has +0.5 to +2 compensation and the same in the negative direction.

Can anyone help me out as for what to do when I first encounter these conditions? I will be printing the negatives and can handle a reasonable amount of under or overexposure but a nicely exposed negative is always nice.

[Beemermark]

Meter off your palm and open up one stop. Of course this assume your Caucasian.

[FormulaJay]

An incident light meter would be the best solution. The times in which I have shot snow scenes with a reflected meter I would usually take 2 shots. One at +1 and the other at +2, but that was with a 60/40 cw meter. YMMV

[DNG]

Try bracketing, at .5 EV steps... With Digital, I shoot snow to be a little left of my normal exposure on the histogram. (underexpose by a 1/4 stop or so, since Digital records a Positive (Slide-Like) image. This way, you won't blow out the snows highlights... The same holds true for film. But, you'd over-expose (lower ISO, since it is a recorded negative).

So, take a few images at +.5, +1., +1.5, +2 EV adjustments. for your Negative Film.

Digital samples slightly under exposed and brought back up in post. to retain snow textures.

[Krzys]

I would spot or incidence meter...but I am using tiny P&S cameras with control over only aperture and compensation.

Not sure what kind of metering is in the XA, but I think the Ricoh Gr1 is spot.

[HMFriedman]

You've already got some good information on exposure. I'll add that a yellow filter nicely enhances the texture of snow.

[Rob-F]

All are good suggestions, including the yellow filter! Just don't meter off the snow. Read from a gray card, or use an incident meter. If you read from the snow, it will look like mud in the print. (Been there, done that.)

[SolaresLarrave]

I shot snow in January with my M4-2 and my Sekonic L208. Simple: meter on the ground or a gray surface (my ground was cement, and it was uncovered by snow), and open up one stop (if the meter gives you an EV of 1/1000 at f5.6, just either shoot at 1/500 or at f4. If you're not happy yet, adjust in postprocessing.

Important: apply ONLY if you are going to have snow in a range of 50 to 75% of your frame. If it's in spots, leave the EV as it is, don't overexpose.

[Keith]

... take a reading off a grey card and then a sheet of white paper in outside light with your spot meter.

It should give you some indication of how much you'll need to compensate.

[ebolton]

If you can lock the exposure with those cameras by a half press of the button, and you have a clear blue sky, you can lock the exposure on the sky, and the snow will come out OK.

[Juan Valdenebro]

There's no way to make snow detailed precisely on negative's range limits... Simply because snow can be a lot of things... There ARE ways to do it, depending on what kind of snow you have on your scene.


On overcast days, scenes with snow show less contrast than the same scenes on sunny days, so exposition and development should be different on both kinds of situations... This way, shining bright snow from a sunny day, or overcast/in the shadows snow, can both be placed on the higher limits of your negative...


Apart, although not very common, you can find scenes under direct sun with snow in a zone in shadows... So there's no absolute value for spot metering snow either... I would say development can be as important as exposure or even more...


XA is not the best tool for all that... But if I had to use an XA(autoexposure), I would set it at my normal ISO settings (sunny or overcast) and I would shorten development a bit, trusting film's latitude will hold detail, and I'd get more contrast when printing if necessary. That, in scenes with just some snow.


If there's more snow than just a bit, I'd set ISO one stop lower. If snow is most of the scene, I'd lower XA's ISO setting 2-3 stops.


Cheers,


Juan

[Krzys]

Originally Posted by Keith

... take a reading off a grey card and then a sheet of white paper in outside light with your spot meter.

It should give you some indication of how much you'll need to compensate.

This is genius, cheers

Thanks too Juan, some great info there. The XA is perfect for traveling light though

[Juan Valdenebro]

Originally Posted by Keith

... take a reading off a grey card and then a sheet of white paper in outside light with your spot meter.

It should give you some indication of how much you'll need to compensate.

Yes, handheld metering would be the most reliable way to do it... But as always happens with handheld metering, that can be done only if you are exactly under the same light received by snow.

Cheers,

Juan

[raytoei@gmail.com]

Hi. I presume you'd be using your XA which is aperture priority camera.

On a snowy day, the reflection off the snow will make the background brighter, and hence, the camera will compensate by making it grey (12% or 18%). However your foreground subject will appear too dark. So therefore, to compensate, the 1.5 stop EV option (bottom lever) should be used with the XA. Just to be safe, you should also shoot w/o the +1.5EV

Alternatively, you could fiddle with the ISO to 200 just for the snowy shot, but develop normally.

raytoei

[payasam]

Beemermark, all human palms have much the same reflectivity -- regardless of where physical anthropology places their owners. The backs of the hands vary widely. Krzys, this technique is in effect the same as using an incident light meter. If you are using a reflected light meter, open up 2 or 2.5 stops. If your camera is an auto exposure one, adjust film speed to achieve the same end: for Tri-X rated at 400, you should be okay with the meter set to 100 or 64.

[benno]

I just add +2.0 EV comp on my now dead Ixus and it works well enough for portraiture and so on. No texture in the the snow, but it's white and people faces are properly exposed.

That is of course assuming a very bright day.