Winter's Beach

Winter's beach can be as serene and peaceful as summer's. Maybe more so with quiet's presence.

With an almost all-white composition, I made sure to compensate so my image would not end up under-exposed. If left for the light meter to decide, it would be a dull and dark image. I "pushed my whites to the right" on my histogram and ended up with an appropriately exposed photo.

I shot at a speed of 1/500 and aperture of f/8. ISO was fixed at 100, as is my habit.

I added a textured layer in photoshop that also brought a touch of colour to the sky.

Snowflake Tree

The snowflakes were ready for harvesting...

I'd like to talk a little bit about exposure in snow compositions. Left to our camera's mind and eye, our winter images would most often be underexposed. When reading the landscape, the camera sees a predominantly white image as too bright and will compensate by decreasing the exposure (when on automatic) or give a reading on the light meter that the image is overexposed (for those who shoot manually). Subsequently, we are often inclined to bump down the exposure ourselves. This leaves us with a dark image.

"Push the whites to the right." Remember that phrase. On your histogram (use it - it is most helpful!) often we like to see the bulk of the pixels right in the center of the graph. Not so with a white landscape! Adjust your settings until the peak of the pixels is at the far right of your graph, without spilling over off the graph. Then you will have a properly exposed winter image (or any white image).

"Push the whites to the right!"

Photographing a Winter Wonderland

These last couple of days of mild weather and early morning fog have gifted us with beautiful hoarfrost that lasts well into the afternoon. To be able to walk out my door and out on the trail into this wonderland has been such a blessing. Seeing things anew inspires creativity and opens the world up in a whole new way, at least for a time.

When heading out with your camera into a largely white landscape, remember the tip "push the whites to the right" when viewing your histogram (just don't go off the graph). The camera will be fooled into thinking an underexposed image is a proper exposure. Compensating for this is necessary to avoid an image that is grey and dark.