Winter's Sun

[u666u]

Nice idea, but it needs to be in focus. I can't find anything that is. Also needs a stop or two more exposure (the key to making snow white in photos). You have good instincts though, so keep working on it.

Not in focus is nasty!! The snow that the sun is on is white that is what I went for. I have other higher exposures they make the snow white. I am still learning but not a complete amature. O... sh.. I thank you but how do I show the light and the sun in the right light? This is hard.

[Mad Aussie]

When you say 'higher exposures' do you mean longer exposures ... ie exposures (photos) that used a longer shutter speed? Or do you mean you have photos that you used a wider aperture setting (lower f-stop value) ? In other words, photos that are brighter all around?

What you are dealing with in a photo like this is a scene with such a large difference in the bright areas and darker areas that the camera can not correctly exposure for it in a single photo. This is called having a large or high dynamic range (HDR).
Your choices in this type of photo include these ...

a) expose for the brightest areas and try to silhouette the darker parts. This keeps detail in those bright clouds as much as possible,

b) try to go an average exposure which will do an average job meaning some parts will be exposed well, some parts won't. Most likely you will have blown out highlights and dark areas without detail,


c) use an HDR Merge process where you take around 3 to 5 photos using a tripod in rapid succession and then use software and processing skills to blend the photos together to produce a photo that retains better exposure throughout,

d) use a Graduated Neutral Density Filter on the lens that allows you to darken the light hitting the lens from the bright parts but still see the darker areas as normal. This allows the filter/lens combination to even up the HDR and take a single photo.
Note: In some cases a Circular Polarizer will do this job as well if the HDR isn't too great.

[Marko]

A.L. gives good advice here.

....I have other higher exposures they make the snow white. I am still learning but not a complete amature. O... sh.. I thank you but how do I show the light and the sun in the right light? This is hard.

Just wanted you to be aware of the difference between colour cast and correct exposure.

IF the snow is correctly exposed, it can STILL have a bluish or another coloured cast. That's because the light that lights the snow is blueish or another colour (golden/yellowy).

JUST LIKE a person being lit by light reflected off a RED wall will have a reddish cast to their face. The exposure can still of course be perfect....but you need to get rid of the red cast unless u are going for a special effect.

With snow...there is more leeway because even our eyes can sometimes see a bluish cast to the snow. So you can remove all the blue or keep a portion of the blue... it's really up to your creative expression in this case.
Just know that a bluish cast on snow might be acceptable but if there is a person in that shot, the cast may also be in their face and it may not look pleasing.


all this to say.....

worry about exposure first IMO.

Personally I rarely correct my colour casts in camera when i shoot outdoors. I correct them in post if I need to. With non-daylight I say I correct for colour (play with automatic white balance) only 10% of the time.

Hope that helps,

Marko