Shown above: “Vintage International Harvester Antique Tractor In The Snow” by Edward M. Fielding – https://edward-fielding.pixels.com/featured/vintage-international-harvester-antique-tractor-in-the-snow-edward-fielding.html

Ah Winter has arrived!

It seems like only a few weeks ago I was out capturing the fall foliage season around the Upper Valley region of Vermont and New Hampshire, then a quick trip to the Southwest to take in the beauty of the desert, Thanksgiving shopping and then wham-o!

A blast of snow just before Thanksgiving and some bitter cold.  And then this week, a steady snowfall of wet heavy snow for three days and no power for the last two.  Last I checked it is still snowing.

So about that snow.  If you are like me, your social media stream is full of terrible dark, dreary, gray or blue snow.  Seems like everyone is challenged to take a picture of snow!

Here is the deal.  Snow makes your camera go crazy.  It throws off the exposure metering and white balance.  Typically exposing darker and bluer than what you are seeing.

The trick to properly exposing for snow is to boost up your exposure compensation by one stop and adjust your white balance to warm up the scene.

Camera meter are designed for some kind of average skin tone which was designated as 18% gray a ways back.  Point your camera at a black car and it will overexpose it to create a gray car.

Point your camera at a white wall or white wedding dress and it will underexpose it to create a gray wall or dress.

Same with a predominately which scene like a snow covered house.  To overcome the grayness, boost the exposure by one stop using the exposure compensation.