Shooting snow on slides

beans

Hi all,

I will be out on the piste next weekend, and I'm getting my kit together for some alpine snapping. I was wondering if anyone has any tips on shooting snowy scenes? I'll be shooting on film by the way.

Was thinking of buying some Velvia for the landscapes. Will be shooting Ilford FP4 125 for some B&W stuff too, and Sensia, and I've a tungsten balanced roll for the craic. Also, was thinking of getting a polarizer. If anyone can think of any caveats that might help to get the shots I want, that'd be great.

I'm already planning to overexpose by (?) to get my snow white, some say 2 stops but that seems awfully big when shooting on slides?

Cheers

mikeanywhere

Interesting article here and another one here

magicbastarder

get a grey card, it did me well until i got an ambient lightmeter.

DadaKopf

Yes, an 18% grey card would be good.

Yes, you should overexpose slightly to make the snow come out more white. But two things to bear in mind. Firstly, use a UV filter or else the snow will look blue. Secondly, the amount of stops you need to overexpose will depend on the film's latitude; professional films usually have narrower latitude so 1 stop would probably be more than enough, but consumer film has much wider latitude to suit most cameras/photographers. Also, if using slide film, like Velvia (which is a slow film, not good for action shots), be careful not to overexpose too much, as you can't fix an overexposed shot in slide like you can with negatives.

mikeanywhere

I also got one of these recently and it makes a HUGE difference.

Also a lot less hassle about taking bits of card with you everywhere.

magicbastarder

that's white balance only, is it?

beans

Thanks for the replies sofar. Good advice on the UV filters.

Reckon metering is going to be the biggest issue. It's going to depend on the sun, the amount of snow... no rules are going to cover it all, just trust my eye. Underexpose about a stop for a bright sunny snowy scene, after that it'll all depend.

mikeanywhere

magicbastarder wrote:

that's white balance only, is it?

The 18% greay card mentioned above is used to set the white balance.

magicbastarder

ah - fair enough. i was not thinking of WB cos he said he'll be using film.

mikeanywhere

magicbastarder wrote:

ah - fair enough. i was not thinking of WB cos he said he'll be using film.

Ooops - shovel needed, I didnt read that far down in the original thread!!

edzje