Does He Really Snow What He Is Doing?

We are in the midst of our first snow fall of this winter. I was intrigued to experiment with different settings to see what impact they had when shooting the snow as a subject.

All of these digital photography images were from the comfort of my home looking through a window  in the morning. None have been edited, and all taken in manual mode. What I wanted to avoid is the snow looking blue!

This image is underexposed. The bright light you can see in the background is the internal flash from the camera.  F/10, 1/160 sec, ISO 1000, exposure compensation -0.7 at 15mm . The White Balance was on Auto.

Experimenting with taking images of the snow No 1

For this image I chose a manual white balance- and sadly this is the result. The dreaded blue snow! All other settings are the same as the first image!

Experimenting with taking images of the snow 2

This next mage is over exposed. Settings are f/11, 1/2 sec, ISO 320, Exp +3. I had assumed I needed to increase EC, which is true- but not by that much.

Experimenting with taking images of the snow 3

The 4th image , the aperture was f/11, shutter speed 1/160 sec, I reduced the ISO to 500, and went for 0 EC. The image is underexposed.

Experimenting with taking images of the snow 4

On this final shot the settings were the same except I increased  ISO to 4000 and kept the EC at 0. I think it is the best of the bunch.

Experimenting with taking images of the snow 5

I have learnt the value of paying attention to the white balance settings whenever I take a picture indoors. I have learnt more about the impact changing the ISO has- I frequently leave it on auto but it is is good to come out of my comfort zone and play around with different settings. I will set a goal to be more intentional in my photography, and slow down more to understand how my settings will affect the final image.