Metering in a snowstorm?

[Calamity Jane]

We had our first snowfall of the year yesterday, a REAL heavy dump of the white stuff (6" in two hours). Since I stayed home from work ("snow day"! WAHOO!), I was looking at the scene outside my window and was REALLY tempted to shoot it on an 8x10 transparency but realized I didn't have the foggiest idea how to meter it!

The scene:

Very, VERY dark, like late evening - heavy leaden overcast, no sign of where the sun was, no shadows, not even a lighter area of clouds.

HEAVY snow in the air, big fluffy wet snowflakes close together - visibility a couple hundred feet - would have been nice to catch on film.

The background was mostly white snow with a few really dark items with snow on top.

There was nothing in the scene even approaching grey - 95% white, subdued light, and 5% black in deep shadows.

Obviously a nice picture would have required a lot more exposure than an incident meter would indicate but less than a spotmeter would read on the black shadows.

The lighting conditions and combination of extreme lights/darks was so far out of my experience that I didn't shoot it.

How would you have approached the speed/aperature selection problem?

[John Cook]

Jane, the short professional answer is to keep detailed notes over the years so you can repeat something which worked in the past. There is nothing less productive than re-inventing the wheel with every assignment.

The (very personal) more technical response would be to open up from the sunny sixteen rule between three to five stops (?), depending upon your judgement of the cloud density and time of day.

Contrary to the Zone System boys, I see no need to carry 10 or more stops of shadow detail. It is neither necessary nor natural-looking to have full detail in the fur of a black cat under a parked car.

So, like urban night photography, I would concentrate on the highlights and let the deep shadows just go. No spot meter.

Speaking of highlights, without the sun you will have no Key Light. So a blizzard tends to photograph flat - just like it looks. Not sure I would mess with that, for fear of making the thing look too phoney and manipulated. Let the digital folks do that. (My idea of “image sharpening” is a stronger loupe.)

Still, a key light is real nice to have. My personal preference would be to wait for dusk and shoot under a strong street light. Just don't let it get between the camera and the subject, for fear of white-out.

As for the exposure in that case, I refer you to my first paragraph about notes. That street light in front of City Hall has been the same brightness for years. No need to meter it every time you walk by.

The only other tidbit I can pass along is that someone once told me that human vision works at about a 1/15th of a second. So if you want to photograph a table fan (spinning blades) or snow falling and have it look natural, that shutter speed will neither freeze the action nor unnecessarily blur it.

Last tip: a test is always nice. ;0)

[Bill_1856]

CJ, you "stayed home from work;" does this mean that you have a real day job? Anyhow, I would have stuck my digital camera out the window (set on Program) and bracket and fired away. Then chimped the results and repeated the process based on the previous results until I had the right stuff. What kind of a hell-hole has snow in early October, anyhow?

[ronald moravec]

An incident meter will handle all this just fine. You might under expose to preserve the darkness.

[Alan Davenport]

CJ, remember that the goal of calculating an exposure is to place the important parts of the image in the linear range of the film's response. With transparencies, you have a five stop range; middle gray +/- 2 stops. So, if you want snow to be white, but with some detail still visible, you meter the brightest part of the snow, and open 2 stops from the meter reading. Works every time.

[Mike Kovacs]

Also, chances are you will not record snowflakes in mid air as anything other than a fog. What I have seen done is to use a flash to capture snowfall in mid air, close to the camera, when that effect is desired.

[Eric Fredine]

The light in these kinds of conditions is very flat so I think you'd find the contrast range would have been easily captured on transparency film. For transparencies I shoot Astia and in snowy conditions I just meter the snow and open up 2 and 1/3 stops. Easier than metering in without the snow! And I suspect incident metering would have been just fine too.

[James E Galvin]

I would do as I usually do, place shadows at zone 2 or 2.5, and see were the highest highlight fell. If past zone 8 or so, the scene's range exceeds the film's: no go. If not, shoot. In doubt, shoot a polaroid, if that is good, transparency has a little wider range, should be fine. You have a scene with a large range, but maybe saved by the fog's filling in the shadows some. I found it useful to plot the film's curve, by shooting a greyscale card, so I know were the top and bottom of the film fall on my lightmeter.

[Calamity Jane]

Thanks for the suggestions guys! I'll keep notes for next time.

Bill,
Yes, I have a day job, and it pays REAL money to ;-) Otherwise I couldn't afford LF!

Hell-hole? Well, this IS Canada after all. Everybody from the Rocky Mountains to northern Ontario got the snow in the past 2 days. On the bright side, the winter weather keeps the riff-raff away - well, except for me :-)

[Mike Kovacs]

Funny, its been mid to high 20's (Celcius) here in southern Ontario all week!

[Struan Gray]

You haven't said what sort of photograph you want to make. Lith-like shadows on a creamy white field? Accurate tonal depiction with the resulting bugger all seperation between the snowflakes and the background? The on-camera flash snapshot aesthetic?

Decide that, and the exposure/development will be obvious.

I would try to depict the feel of the wrap-round sensory deprivation you get when walking through a whiteout. Put the whites on Zone V and print light.

[james mickelson]

One thing to think about is the color of the image. If you expose color positive film (slide) in that light, it will have a very blue tone to it. Even though your eye says it's flat and colorless or gray, the light that is there is almost all blue as that is the last discernable wavelength of light getting through the clouds. If you want a more pleasing color to the image, I would put a warming filter on the lens. Not the Outdoor Photographer strength but a slight warming filter which would neutralize some of the blue and make the color more pleasing, not that blue is unpleasant. But it would make the snow white. The idea of using a flash is a good one especially if you have multiple exposure options. A short flash would freeze the snow a short distance from the flash while a second exposure without flash would allow you to soften the falling snow like water falling. Whatever you do, have fun doing it.

[Capocheny]

And torrential down-pour here in Vancouver today! :)

But, the ducks seem to be having a good time!

Cheers

[Wayne Crider]

What James said but a stronger filter. I wouldn't be tempeted to expose such expensive materials without a color meter. Even a cheap Sixticolor would be better then nothing. Just allow for any cold coloring that you want.

[Brian Ellis]

I think that how you determine your exposure depends on the scene. What was in those black shadow areas? Was it something important to the photograph or were they just accent blacks or something similar that didn't require detail to be shown? If the latter then you could just place the snow wherever you wanted it depending on what you wanted to convey in the photograph. E. g. if you wanted a bright, high contrast photograph you might place the snow on Zone VI or VII and let the shadows fall where they may, most likely Zone I or II from your description, which means there would be no detail in them. If you were going for a darker, more moody look, place the snow on Zone V or VI which will result in the shadows being totally black but that's o.k. if there's nothing important to the photograph in them. If there was something in the black areas that was important to the photograph then place the snow where you want it and meter the shadows to see if the contrast range exceeds the ability of the film to hold detail in both areas. If it does then you either don't make the photograph or you accept the fact that you'll have to give up detail somewhere and expose for the area in which detail is most important.