On my last two photo safaris we encountered situations where our photo subjects

included large expanses of snow. I was immediately deluged with questions about making
correct exposures. After rather lengthy conversations I realized that photographing
predominantly white landscapes is still a mystery to many tour participants. Lets go over
what camera meters do, and discuss how to deal with "white subject" exposure problems.
Meters do not tell you the aperture/shutter speed values to use for correct exposure. Let
me define "correct exposure." It means getting a slide back with your subject rendered as
you wanted it to appear. If you want the medium blue sky to record as a medium blue,
and indeed it is that tone on the film, then youve made a correct exposure. If you want the
white snow to record as white, and it has, then youve made a correct exposure. If you
want to leave the lens cap on while you take a picture, and you have, then youve made a
correct exposure. "Correct exposure" has nothing to do directly with the meter reading
values; it has all to do with your choices in making the picture.
Most current cameras offer a choice of three metering modes: a spot meter (which reads a
very small section of the frame), a center-weighted meter (which
reads the central portion) and a matrix or evaluative meter (which
divides the frame into many small sections and evaluates them). Yellowstone frost
These three choices are available in both the manually set fog: I metered the
exposure mode (where you actually set both shutter speed and brightest white area,
aperture) and all the auto-exposure modes (aperture priority, about 1/3 way up the
shutter priority and program), and are independent of AF or right hand side of
manual focus. the frame, then
opened up 2 1/3
When you use the spot or center-weighted patterns, the meter
stops.
tells you what shutter speed/aperture settings to use IF you want
to render the subject youre pointing the meter at as a medium
tone. This is not always true for "matrix" or "evaluative" metering
patterns in current Nikon and Canon cameras. These metering
modes run a software program to arrive at a final exposure value;
they are biasing the suggested exposures according to their
programs.
So lets go out and meter something. If youre working on average-
toned subjects you should have no problems. Most things are
average tonality, neither light nor dark in tonality. Point your
camera at the subject, take a meter reading and press the shutter.
But along comes a white subject, such as a snowy scene, and now
you have a problem. The absolutely worst thing you can do, in
terms of exposure with slide film, is to burn out the highlights.
Think about this: in our everyday lives we are used to seeing blocked-up black shadow
areas with no visible detail in them. But we rarely encounter burned-out blank highlights
completely devoid of detail. Thats our experience of life, so we need to record some
detail in the whites on our film.
If you simply point your camera at the white area, meter using either the spot or center-
weighted patterns, and shoot at the suggested exposure
values the whites will, of course, be rendered as a White Sands National
medium tone. You have to add some light to the Monument, rabbitbrush in
suggested exposure. autumn: White Sands is one of
What about the "matrix" and "evaluative" patterns my favorite locations, but one
touted by the camera manufacturers? If you meter a where precise metering is
white area using one of these patterns, will the results mandatory. Here I metered the
record as white? Will the software programs recognize brightest white in the frame,
an entirely white scene and expose it as such? Lets try just below the furthest left
it. Set your camera to the manual exposure mode and section of rabbitbrush, then
meter a sheet of white paper (fill the frame with the opened 2 stops from my spot
paper) using the spot-metering pattern. Center your meter reading.
meter display to the zero point, and you know that the
film would record the white paper as a medium gray.
Now, without changing anything else, switch your
camera to the center-weighted metering pattern. The
finder display should still read out at the "zero"
position. Once again dont change anything else, but
now select the matrix/evaluative metering pattern.
What happened to the suggested exposure values? Did
they change? I tried this test using a Nikon F5, a Nikon
F100, and a Canon EOS1n. All read out the exact same
exposure values as did the spot and center-weighted patterns. Matrix programs do bias
the exposure if you have a range of tones within your scene, but apparently do not if
youre metering only white.
So, if none of these metering patterns will render a white subject as white, then what do
you do? You have to open up to allow more light to hit the film. But here comes the big
question: how much do you need to open up from the
base reading?
Torres del Paine: Here's a very
All color slide films can hold detail in a range of contrasty scene. The wind was
roughly five stops. From a medium placement (the extreme, with the sky/cloud
meter reading, that is) one stop open gives you a "light" patterns ever-changing. The
tone. This is the tone of dry sand, the palm of your one constant was the lenticular
hand, white bread lightly toasted, or beige file cabinets. cloud just above the middle
Two stops open yields pure white, but still with detail. peaks. I spot metered it and
Two and a half stops open renders the subject as detail- opened up 2 full stops.
less white. FYI, this last is exactly the tonality of the
white side of a Kodak gray card. According to Kodak it
has 90% reflectance. Remember that stops are doubles
and halves. If 18% reflectance is medium, then 36% is
one stop lighter, 72% two stops lighter, and 144% (if
there were such a reflectance) three stops. In a
geometric progression, 90% is half way in between
these last two values.
So just how white do you want your white subject to
be? For example, we speak of snow as "white" but its really all sorts of tones, depending
on whether its in shadow or bright sunlight. So heres the answer: choose one specific area
of your scene (I would pick the brightest "white" area, since you want to hold detail
there), spot meter it and only it, then place that particular area as the tonality you want it
to record by opening up accordingly. Read that sentence again as its the sure answer to
exposing for whites. I would strongly suggest that you use spot-metering — so you dont
accidentally meter adjoining areas — and in the manual exposure mode — since what
you set is what you get without the necessity of holding down exposure lock buttons.
Meter the bright area, decide how white you want it to be and open up accordingly.
Ive heard it suggested that to hold detail in whites you should only open up one stop. As I
mentioned, this is roughly the tonality of white bread lightly toasted. OK, is your "white"
subject lighter or darker than that slice of toast? If its lighter and Ill bet it is then you must
open up even more. Dont worry; youll still have detail in that subject.
I think you need to open up at least 1 2/3 stops to record white as white. I would go all
the way to two stops open for a bright white. By the way, if youre photographing a snow
scene on an overcast, day youll need to open up even more. In this lighting situation there
is no detail in the snow surface at all, since it is the shadows caused by direct sun that
give that sparkling effect. On an overcast day the snow
is a detail-less white to your eye, so meter it and open 2 Polar bear: I metered the bear
1/3 to 2 1/2 stops. Jack Dykinga, who I think is the best and opened up 1 stop. I
4x5 landscape photographer around, states the checked my exposure by
following in his new book Large Format Nature metering the ice just below the
Photography (Amphoto, 2001): "You can meter off bear's front feet and placing it
white areas [note: Jack uses a spot meter] and open up 1 1/2 stops open.
your lens from 1.6 to 2.3 stops, depending on how
white you want your whites to be. For example, in
shooting snow scenes I meter the snow in soft overcast
light and open the lens 2 stops if I want the snow
slightly bluish or 2.3 stops for pure white snow."
Look at my photo of a polar bear, taken on the 2001
Svalbard trip. Polar bears are not white; they are cream
colored, about one stop lighter than medium. But the
snow is lighter than the bear. If you metered the snow
and opened up only one stop, what tonality would the
bear appear to be? Roughly a medium tone, that is a middle-
tone gray; but polar bears are not average in any way. To
properly expose the scene either meter the bear and open one
stop or meter the snow and open two stops. Both methods
will give you the same exact answer in terms of the actual
shutter speed/aperture combination.
I would urge you not to use an incident meter when youre
photographing white subjects or working snow scenics. An
incident meter measures the light falling on the subject, and
gives you the same answer as metering a gray card would.
But this does not work well when your subject is
predominantly at one end or the other of the tonal scale.
Think about this: the old "sunny f/16" estimated exposure rule, the same as an incident
reading in bright sunlight, works for medium-toned subjects but not for white or black
subjects. For both of these you must add or subtract a stop of light.
The best way to work white subjects is to spot meter a specific area, decide just how
white you want that particular area to be, then open up accordingly. To sum up, here are
my suggestions:
1. Set your camera to the spot-metering pattern in the manual exposure mode.
2. Meter the brightest "white" area and only this area.
3. Open up a minimum 1 1/2 or 1 2/3 stops.
4. On overcast days, open up 2 to 2 1/2 stops.

Tips on shooting snow and ice

· 1 Jan 2002
Tips on shooting snow and ice - A complete guide to photographing snow and ice by
ePHOTozine's Peter Bargh. Learn how to expose and compose in our winter months.
Winter brings a new range of photo opportunities where familiar colourful scenes are
suddenly covered in a blanket of snow. Bare trees become stark outlined silhouettes
against a brilliant white backdrop, grasses poke out from below white canopies and old
barns look like sets from pantomimes.
Words and Pictures Peter Bargh

As the snow falls, if you're like me, you'll probably be itching to venture out and capture
the scenic delights, but beware, Jack Frost has a few tricks up his sleeve to prevent you
getting good pictures.
The first is the temperature. Cameras are built to work within a specific temperature
range and batteries have similar needs.
Most UK weather won't cause any problems, but be aware that the batteries may not
perform as well as they could. Several pro-spec SLRs and medium format cameras have a
special battery pack that you keep in your pocket and have a cord running up to the
camera. This allows the batteries to be kept warm in your pocket while you operate the
camera. If you have a model that doesn't do this try removing the batteries from the
camera and warming them up before taking pictures. This is fiddly, but it may get you the
extra shot or two.

Also don't try and take pictures as soon as you come out of the cold into the warmth. The
camera needs to acclimatise, and if pulled straight out you'll see the lens mist up. Leave
the camera a few minutes before attempting to take pictures.

The main problem with snow is that its brilliant and highly reflective tones fool the
camera's metering system. All cameras have built in metering systems that are designed
to deliver a perfect picture assuming the contrast range is normal. They do this by
scrambling the tones and then adjust so the scrambled colour brightness is mid grey or
average. This is fine when the subject has a wide tonal range with everything from black
to white being present, but when the subject is predominantly white, such as snow, the
camera underexposes so that the white becomes grey. This also happens, to a lesser
extent, on beach scenes where the sand is the main part of the subject.

All you need to do is override the camera's automatic setting using the exposure
compensation setting on a full auto camera or by going to manual on one of the more
advanced models. If you set the exposure compensation to either plus 1 and 2 stops
depending on the amount of snow in the picture your results will be much better. If your
camera has an exposure lock, usually set be half pressure on the shutter button, point it at
a mid tone to lock the exposure before recomposing and taking the photograph.
If you have one of the old manual SLRs adjust the film speed setting to, say, ISO25 when
using ISO100 film. This makes the camera allow more exposure to ensure what it thinks
is a slower film receive the correct amount of exposure. Remember to set it back when
you finish taking snow pictures.

One final problem when you have your pictures commercially printed is that the lab can
also become fooled by the tones and once again adjust to make them mid grey. Here the
snow will have a brown, blue or grey hue. If so ask the lab to reprint or, better still,
inform them when the films are handed in that the prints may need special attention
because of the snow content.

Now we have the technical details out of the way let's look at the subject.
With snow pics you should try to include some areas of detail to avoid a complete wash
of white. Use a telephoto lens to crop in on branches laden with snow to create lovely
abstract patterns. Similarly frost or ice on leaves can pull out nature's patterns producing
detail that's almost etched. Move in close and avoid flash, which will reflect off the ice
and cause hard to avoid, distracting highlights.

Winter mornings can provide great images. Go out before the sun melts the frozen dew.
Spiders webs, icy blades of grass and frost covered berries are all great subjects to catch
early in the morning.

It's also worth going out as soon as the snow falls to capture virgin snow. It doesn't take
long for the sledges and snowmen to eat into the freshness, making the snow a mush of
brown.

Look for tracks in the snow. Bird prints, paw prints and boots provide interesting detail.
Shoot from an angle to ensure the print has shadows so you see the 3D shape, otherwise
the impressions will be hard to see.

Also try shooting while the snow is falling, but avoid flash. The light levels will be low
and an automatic camera will think flash is needed. Switch it off because the flash will
reflect off the nearby flakes making the picture full of large blurry blobs that distract.
If you mount the camera on a tripod you can shoot at a low shutter speed and gain a real
blizzard like effect as the falling snow is recorded as a blurred streak down the photo.
But watch the camera! Snow will quickly melt and the water could damage the
electronics. Cover the camera with a clear plastic bag with a hole at the front for the lens
to shoot through and wrap an elastic band around the bag on the lens barrel to hold it in
place. Screw a filter on the front of the lens if you're using an SLR to protect the element
from drifting snow.

Wrap up warm and head for the fields there are some great pictures waiting.

Look around for unusual subjects that have been blessed by Jack Frost. Here the edge of
a pulley is outlined with ice, making it a more interesting shape.
Winter scenes don't have to be covered in snow to affect the camera's meter. Here half a
stop extra light was required to prevent the white looking blue. Frosty winter mornings
produce crisp looking landscapes with dramatic skies.
 Go out early on a cold winter's morning and all the leaves and branches will be etched
with frost. Allow about 1/3 of a stop to compensate and ensure the frost is brilliant white.

When most of the scene is snow you must allow about 1.5 to two stops extra exposure to
 ensure the snow appears pure white. But even then you may find blue in the shadow
areas because snow reflects a lot of UV light that has gives the blue colour.

When shooting scenes make sure there's details such as trees or walls as well as the snow
or it would be a bland wash of white. Here we show a dull version that would appear if
you didn't compensate by at least one stop.
Spiders' webs look great in winter, but make sure you photograph them with a dark
background to pick out the detail.