Today is one of those rare days in West Tennessee, we have snow! Schools are closed and I am fortunate enough to be able work from home when weather gets a bit yucky. A day like today is just begging me for some snowy day photography. Snowy day photography can be a little tricky. Do you ever take pictures of your kids playing in the snow and the photos are dark or have a weird colored tint to the snow?
When taking photos outside with the combination of bright sun and snow your camera can be a bit overwhelmed. Cameras typically try to take the middle of the road theory. Your camera will see so much light being reflected off the snow and immediately try to compensate for the over abundance of light.
Here are a couple tips to help improve your snowy day photos. If taking photos of your kids in the snow use the fill flash or daylight flash setting on your camera. It will brighten the faces of the people in your photos. I know using a flash in an extremely bright situation seems completely wrong. What actually happens is the surroundings are very bright but people are not as reflective as the snow. They need the extra boost from the fill flash to compensate for the bright surroundings. Note: this also works for very sunny days at the beach or pool.
The other tip is to find the “white balance” setting on your camera. Since each camera is different I would recommend reading your manual. Take a couple sample shots adjusting the white balance. Look at the white snow and find out which setting gives you the best pure white color. Color and brightness can be adjusted later in an application such as Paint Shop but getting the color and light as accurate as possible for the beginning will improve the quality of your photos.