Photography

[Jon Vermilye]

Thanks for your comments! The wind is still up today. Rather than more Lighthouse images here is one of the waves creating a bit of a rainbow coming over the breakwall:

http://cdn.fiberglassrv.com/forums/i...attach/jpg.gif

[Penney H. & Mike E.]

Thanks Jen for the suggestions. I have a Canon G11, a fancy point and shoot. I usually shoot with a low-medium ISO - especially snow shots since it usually isn't that bright out. The pictures I posted were not 'grainy' ones, though they look a bit that way when I post them, (less so if you click and see them larger, obviously I have something to learn about posting pictures on here too!).

Here's 'seasonal pic', (deer > Christmas) though it was taken end of summer, I've used it on one of my Christmas card designs.

[Jon Vermilye]

One problem with photographing snow scenes - your camera's meter will average all that white & expose it as middle grey, underexposing the image. Check the histogram of the image & if you find it shifted to the left, use exposure compensation to increase exposure & shift it further to the right. The best exposure will be as far right as possible without hitting the right hand wall.

The grain may be caused by post processing (either by you or the printer) to bring the "grey" snow back to white. The underexposed image has less data; printing it as white will multiply the noise in the underexposed area.

[Leehman]

Originally Posted by jen b

Penney, thanks! Snow is tricky because it's usually standing next to something very dark, a tree trunk or a fence post or whatever, and when the camera calculates an average exposure, sometimes the whites lose out and get sort of all blown out and overexposed.

Not sure what camera you have, but I know many of the DSLR Nikons will tend towards blown out whites without some help from the exposure compensation controls. (I'm not familiar with other brands, no idea how they handle bright-white stuff.) When I have light and dark extremes in a shot, say with a black and white cow, I will dial the exposure compensation into a negative range to tell the camera not to expose the white bits quite so much. That allows more detail in those parts in your image.

As for graininess, I can't really tell in those smaller images. Do you have the ISO jacked up pretty high maybe? A lower ISO and a tripod or monopod to compensate for slowed shutter speeds might help if that's the case.

And now for something different.

[Carol H]

I really like the hot tips for snow shots - thanks folks! Have only had my camera for less than a year and I do a lot of volly work at ski races so your tips are great! Love to hear more! I wanted to post a couple of photos from last winter to get some advise for the next race but was wondering what settings everyone is using to upload for best results - ie pixels and K's etc. Like Penney I would like to avoid having the photos come out grainy here when they are not.

[brian m.]

God snow pictures require manual exposure settings. It's like Jon said, your camera is going to meter white snow and make it grey. You need to "overexpose" in order to get the snow to turn out white.

A quick test you can do with your digital camera will show you what I mean. Photograph a white card using your in-camera meter. Fill the frame with the card. Meter manually and shoot a frame at that exposure. The image will be grey and not white. Do the same with a black card. Meter it manually and shoot a frame. It will be grey and not black.

[Carol H]

Thanks Brian for that tip. Will give it a go. Here are a couple of samples of my attempts to shot in the snow as well as one of my deer photos from the summer as we seem to be onto deers here as well. I took the snow ones at the 2010 Winter Olympics and for my amercian friends here they are of Lindsey Vonn of the USA doing a course inspection and then of her about an hour later on her way to a gold medal in Downhill. Hard to get a good shoot during the race as I don't have a super zoom and they are doing over 100 miles an hour when they past me. Also in addition to the camera I was holding a big rake so I could go out on the course and rake the track smooth between racers, so time for setting up a shot was not that great. LOL

[brian m.]

Hi Carol,
It sounds like you have your hands full on the ski slopes! See if your camera can be set at +2 EV, that will trick the camera into "overexposing", then crank up the ISO until you get a fast enough shutter speed for stop action. If you shoot RAW you could white balance to the snow and remove the blue cast.

[Carol H]

Thanks Brian for the tips - problem was at the time I did the Olympics I had the camera (Nikon D90) only a short time and had not really figured out how to work it. Over the summer I have tried to learn how to use it a bit better so hope I will do better at this years races. I am shooting raw and I have Lightroom to fix them up but still figuring that out as well. :-) Yup the blue is an issue and I did not knock it down a lot will have to work on it some more.

[Leehman]

Winter in Hartwell GA

[Penney H. & Mike E.]

Leehman love your Christmas card!

Not a great photo, just my humble & quick attempt last night to photograph the eclipse. We didn't think we would see it, cloudy & raining, so I didn't set up my tripod and get ready. But the clouds thinned and even while disappearing behind the Earth's shadow the bright moon shone through the thin veil of clouds. On a lark I shot a picture, through the rain drops, and the clouds! A lovely celestial phenomena! We watched until it disappeared, clouds moved in. Did anyone else get any pictures of the eclipse?



Penney

[Leehman]

Hi Penny,

Great capture wonderful photo. Love the mysterious look......................

[Carol H]

Had hoped to but when I went out it was so cloudy I could not even see the moon.

[Brian Van Snell]

We had cloud cover here last night, but here is a picture I took of the February 20, 2008 lunar eclipse.

Brian

[David Swinnard]

Over here in the lower left corner (almost) of Canada, we are experiencing something other than the usual winter rains. Today dawned sunny and cold (cold for here, -5C).

I just happened to glance out the window and and was rewarded with the crescent of the moon over which shone Venus is all it's glory. A few moments later the few eastern clouds caught fire! What a day to end 2010 with.

All the best for the new year to all of you and yours.

Dave

[The Schneiders]

Great photos Dave.

I'm in north Idaho and noticed the same lighting this morning.

Happy New Year to you.

[Jon Vermilye]

Dave - Beautiful images!

[Leehman]

Originally Posted by Jon Vermilye

Dave - Beautiful images!

Hi Dave,

Great photos thanks for posting

[Carol H]

Great shots Dave. Love the clear cold!

[Brian Van Snell]

Yesterday we had ice on this little salt water cove near Vancouver, BC!