Snowy conditions

[mtlc]

Hello,

Looking for advice for pictures that have snow on the ground, buildings, trees etc. In the finished prints the snow is always bright white, I can burn in some detail but dislike doing this.

Camera: Zeiss Ikon Ikarex
Film: Fomapan 100 Ilford panf 50 plus

Thanks!

 

[Sirius Glass]

I used the palm of my hand to get the exposure better in snow and that worked well, but in the end, I found that using an incident meter got the exposure the best for white snow.

 

[Doremus Scudder]

Well, you can expose your print so that the snow prints like you like it and then dodge the parts that need it Or better, reduce contrast on the print, keeping the print exposure dialed in on the snow until you get close to the overall contrast you want. If the snow prints like you like it when exposed correctly, then good. but that seems rarely to be the case.

Keep in mind, that it is often better, when trying to print delicate whites with detail, to use a higher contrast setting than one that would match the negative contrast range better and then dodge and burn. That is basically what you seem to be doing. However, finding the right contrast and exposure for the snow and then going from there is often helpful.

Still, snow often renders pretty featureless, especially if the lighting in the scene was flat to start with. In that case, burning snow with a #5 filter or equivalent is often very gratifying to boost detail a bit without sacrificing the whites.

Next time, you can anticipate the problem a bit and look for ways to get more contrast in the snow such as filtration, picking a better angle for the shot in which lighting glances from the side, etc.

Featureless white snow in a print is not necessarily bad either; no more than featureless black. I use both at times (and featureless white skies rendered with a blue filter or on overcast days) as graphic elements in the composition. Visualization at the time of exposure is of great help here.

Best,

Doremus

 

[Keith Tapscott.]

Hello,

Looking for advice for pictures that have snow on the ground, buildings, trees etc. In the finished prints the snow is always bright white, I can burn in some detail but dislike doing this.

Camera: Zeiss Ikon Ikarex
Film: Fomapan 100 Ilford panf 50 plus

Thanks!

An incident reading if you have an incident light meter. It works well enough in most situations.