Camera Labs

Hello all.

I have been doing alot of landscape shooting, and am having truble with the snow here . it always shows up as very bright white with the landscape around it looking fine. I have tried the iso at 100, 200, 400, and speeding up the shuter speed, and played with the F-stops, but the shots come out to dark, or to light . any advice

thanks for any help.
Nick

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Canon Rebel XTI, Tamron 70-300mm w/180-300 macro AF, Canon 18-55mm,Canon 50mm F1.8, Sandisk ExtremeIII 2gig.
Nikon N2020.My Flickr

you should probably use a polarizing filter, it cuts some of the polarized light bouncing off the snow which causes the snow to blow out

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Nikon D80 w/ Nikkor 18-135mm/ Nikkor 70-300mm VR/ Nikkor 50mm 1.8/ Nikon SB-25
Tamrac Digital 3 bag, Tamrac adventure 9
BR-2A reversing ring

My flickr page

Another approach you can try is to block out some of the reflections from the snow by using a lens hood.

Overexposed snow is sometimes caused by all the light being reflected into the lens from areas outside your frame.

Stacking filters - UV/polarizing - may also help.

Cheers

Thanks for the replies I have tryed the hood but still only helps a little.
I guess i will have to get a UV/pol filter shame it is not in the budget this month.

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Canon Rebel XTI, Tamron 70-300mm w/180-300 macro AF, Canon 18-55mm,Canon 50mm F1.8, Sandisk ExtremeIII 2gig.
Nikon N2020.My Flickr

Hi Nick,

I just wish I was lucky enough here in England to have some snow to shoot in but we haven't seen a flake.

It's possible to argue that the camera metering is actually doing a reasonable job as the last thing you want is snow with lots of lovely detail at the expense of the rest of the picture being too dark. Using a polarising filter should certainly help but here are some other suggestions to try while you are saving up.

1. Exposure Compensation. It is usually possible to adjust the bias of the camera's metering by dialling in a fixed exposure compensation which is applied to every shot. Check your manual to see how to do this (page 74 for the Rebel XTi).
2. Changing the Metering Mode. Most DSLRs have a number of options for how the metering is calculated. Usually an average, or close to it, of the whole picture is used but it should be possible to be more specific such as "centre-weighted". Again, the manual will say what options are available (Rebel XTi page 73).
3. Exposure Lock. It is usually possible to lock the exposure to the desired value for a particular area of the picture (works well in conjunction with 2 above) and then recompose before finally taking the picture. For the Rebel XTi this is called "AE Lock" (page 84 of the manual).
4. Shoot in RAW or RAW + JPEG. By saving your files in RAW you retain more of the original dynamic range from the shot for subsequent post-processing.

These techniques should work well for any camera which allows a little creative control over metering. Let us know how you get on.

Bob.

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OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

Hmm, looking at your shots I'd say: You just see normal variations of your camera as it tries to figure out what is more important to you. This can be a tough task in stark contrast.
Me, I'm normally too lazy to bother with exposure before the shot. So for me it's just shooting in RAW to give me the best options to postprocess any exposures that needcompensation...

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

It just started snowing in Denmark as well, so i went to take some pictures of it of course. However its evening and rather dark, and i must admit thats not easy conditons for taking pictures. They turn out all miscolored and stuff, and im not quite sure how to fix it.

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Jake

Canon EOS 400D + EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS + EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS + EF 50mm f/1.8
My Photos - My webpage (danish)

Thomas: The shots I have posted- there was alot of overcast and trees all around me (if you are refering to the shot of the deer)
The shots I am refering to I have not posted (I will post one tonight).
It is of a clifside and almost in direct sunlight.
I will go back to the park and try it in RAW and RAW+JPEG

Bob: Thanks for the info I will pull out the manual and give it a good read again The only other problem with PP is that I only have what came with the XTI and it is not all that good and does not do RAW files very well. It is the very basic of basic (it wiil work for now )
I would like to get photoshop but for the same price a could get a lens (about $350-$650 USD) or I could get photoshop 6 for 100.

Thanks again ALL

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Canon Rebel XTI, Tamron 70-300mm w/180-300 macro AF, Canon 18-55mm,Canon 50mm F1.8, Sandisk ExtremeIII 2gig.
Nikon N2020.My Flickr