Digital Photography Tip Number 2....Overexpose snow
Tip #2) Overexpose Snow/White Scenes.... If you have a scene with mostly white like snow, set the camera's Exposure Compensation to overexpose the photo by +2/3 to +2 or more if necessary. Also new cameras have build in photo settings, where you can pick "Snow Scene" and the camera will overexpose for you.
This overexposure is necessary because a camera's light meter views neutral gray as the perfect exposure, so it will try and expose a scene to get the overall photo to equal neutral gray. So when you have bright white, the camera will expose the scene to make the white, gray, by underexposing the photo. You will probably have to experiment with the overexposure setting, depending on how bright the light is outside, like a sunny day compared to a cloudy day.
As you can see in this photo, when there is mostly white in the scene, the camera will try and adjust to make the scene an overall neutral gray, so it will make the photo darker than it should be. To see a larger version of the photo, please click on the digital photo. |
This second photo is a more natural photo, like the human eye would see it. You want the snow to be bright white but not too bright that it get washed out and shows no shadows. To see a larger version of the photo, please click on the digital photo. |
