Shooting in the snow suggestions

[hockey44]

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Hello,

I don't have any ND filters with me and wanted to ask for any recommendations how best to set up Q2 with bright sun and white snow....here in Verbier, Switz. is glorious but so so bright!

Normally I shoot wide open but that wont fly here with the exposure.  Any thoughts welcome.

Best regards,

Ed

[Siriusone59]

Just one simple suggestion and only because I tend to forget it myself.  Snow is white, not 18% grey and chimping is difficult with such bright surroundings.  Don't forget to compensate the exposure if your metering method is seeing more snow than say a person's face.

[M11 for me]

Put the aperture to f/8 and the exposure to A. Use ISO 100. Look at the histogram and avoid underexposure.

[DavidJohn]

Set the exposure compensation to +2 stops, and bracket.  Be sure to bracket.

 

 

[jaapv]

On 3/8/2022 at 10:43 PM, DavidJohn said:

Set the exposure compensation to +2 stops, and bracket.  Be sure to bracket.

 

 

No, don't !! - make sure that you do not blow out the structure in the snow. This way any snowy area will turn into a featureless über-white blob, even if you try to compensate for your error by bracketing. Never use a fixed EV compensation; every exposure is different, especially in these high-contrast situations.
Go by the histogram and avoid the spike at the right. It does not matter that your subject will be underexposed; you can easily pull up the shadows during postprocessing - but you can never recover your blown highlights.

Edit: This advice harks back to film use. Negative film has a gentle rolloff in the highlights and can block the shadows, so it is better to err on the side of overexposure. However, digital is exactly the other way around: shadows sink gradually into the noise floor and highlights have a sharp cutoff. Therefore the highlights must be protected by tending to underexpose. The shadows can be recovered in postprocessing.