Christmas Tree Snowflake

I found a Christmas Tree snowflake today.

That was pretty sweet.

Frosted Forest

Winter-Kissed

Making sure to compensate for the full white composition, I bumped up my exposure so the camera actually indicated the image was overexposed. I shot at f/8 and a speed of 1/800. My ISO was 100.

Once on my computer, I converted the image to a black and white because I wanted to rid the shot of the blues that are often found in snow compositions. However, it is not a true black and white as there are some warm tones present.

This wintry scene originally presented quite grey with a blue cast. Using a preset and then adjusting the colour from there, I eventually found what worked best, but the image was not yet complete. I brought it into Photoshop and applied a texture layer over-top.

In camera, I shot at f/8 with a speed of 1/800 and ISO of 100.

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!"

Winter Road

Last winter was an exceptional one for hoarfrost. There were many days when the frost would blanket the trees and stay well into the day, sometimes even overnight. It was a winter wonderland!

I shot this picture in Winnipeg. I chose to go to an older part of the city, where the trees were plentiful and mature. The resulting images I took had beautiful canopies of frost covered branches reaching across the roads to meet.

I shot at a focal length of 27 with an aperture of f/8 and shutter speed of 1/200.

Once on my computer I cooled the tones even more than what was already present, which resulted in a blue tint to the snow and ice that I quite liked.

The Snowflake

Do you remember making snowflakes with scissors and white paper when you were little? We folded the paper again and again and then cut out little triangles and squares along the edges. When unfolded a beautiful detailed snowflake was revealed that we were sure to tape to our fridge or hang from the ceiling. It was magical!

Those handcrafted snowflakes were not so far off the real thing. Though, I doubt God had to fold and cut to create these delicate beauties!