Snow: Photographing Winter’s Splendor

After a long winter's night snuggled deep beneath the blankets on my bed there is nothing I love more than opening the curtains to find that the earth has been covered in its own blanket of snow. I love the way the morning sun glistens off it like someone has sprinkled glitter over the ground. I love the way it has the slightest blue cast, but most of all I love waking my kids up to show them the treat that has fallen overnight. There is nothing I do not love about the snow, and as a school teacher I have the added benefit of "Snow Days."

Ok, I lied; there is one thing I do not like about the snow. I do not like taking pictures in the snow. For years I was plagued by washed-out, overexposed photographs. After a little research and a lot of trial and error, I have come up with the following tips for taking perfect pictures in the snow.

Problems:

• The bright sun is bouncing off the snow causing my subject to be lit too brightly, therefore resulting in overexposed photographs.
  
  
• The snow does not appear to be crisp and white in my final images. Cameras are designed to expose for a middle grey, thereby turning your brilliant white snow to a dingy mess.

Solutions for Point and Shoot and SLR Cameras:

• When at all possible take photographs in the morning or early evening hours. The sunlight at these hours is less "white," resulting in a softer hue.
  
  
• Place your subjects in the shade.

• Use the built-in flash on your camera as a "fill flash."
  
  
• Use a 100 ISO film.
  
  
• Focus your camera on a non-white object. For instance, if you are photographing a snow-covered branch, lock your focus on a green area of the branch and not the white snow. Remember, you can always recompose your shot after you have locked your focus on the darker image.
  
  
• When photographing people, zoom in on your subject's face and lock focus. Then zoom out and compose the image while still holding the focus locked.

Mom Tip: Pull the hood on your child's coat out over his or her face to shade it from the sun. Then use your zoom or step in close to photograph just his or her sweet little face. This is a great way to capture those rosy cheeks.

Solutions for SLR Cameras:

• Using a film SLR camera on the manual setting, overexpose your image by one or two f-stops. This does not work with a digital SLR camera due to the built-in white-balance features.
  
  
• Use a hand-held light meter to get the appropriate settings for your camera.
  
  
• Using a digital SLR camera, set the custom white balance using the directions in your manual.
  
  
• Snow also likes to reflect blue. Experiment using the fluorescent white balance setting on digital SLR's or use a UV filter on a film SLR.

Taking photographs in the snow can be a challenge; however, when you capture that one perfect image that demonstrates nature's beauty it is all worth the effort. So bundle up, drink your hot cocoa, grab your camera, and head out to discover the beauty of the season.

Photos by Maureen Spell