Dear Reader,

Scroll down for today’s photo tip on taking bright, colorful photos in the snow...

And don’t forget that this month’s Photo Challenge theme is “What Are You Thankful For?” Submit your one, theme-appropriate photo for a chance to win a $30 gift certificate to the AWAI E-Bookstore... and be entered into the running to win next year’s $2,000 Grand Prize. There’s no purchase necessary to enter and win the monthly Photo Challenge.

-- Bonnie

Bonnie Caton
AWAI Travel Division

P.S. If you like taking photos, why not sell them for a nice side-income? Tomorrow, I’ll tell you about a magazine that’s looking for photos of South America, France, and Italy.

In the meantime, you can find more places to sell your photos (and articles) by checking out the trio of resources included in the Freelancer’s Business Essentials Bundle – on sale now for over 20% off.

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November 18, 2009
The Right Way to Travel, Weekly Photo Tip
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Snow Photo Tips

By Shelly Perry in Portland, OR

The holiday season is officially upon us. Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and, before we know it, Christmas will be here, too.

With snowy winter weather approaching, I thought it would be a good time to send out snow photo tips reminding you of how to expose your photos properly in the snow.

The first thing to keep in mind when you’re using your camera’s automatic mode is that your camera tries to properly expose the shot by finding a happy medium -- otherwise known as middle gray.

Generally, a camera achieves that happy medium well -- resulting in fairly decent exposures. However, add bright, white, glistening snow to the scene and the camera tries to compensate by darkening the scene down. So what do you get? Gray snow.

Let’s take a look at this photo from this month’s Photo Challenge:

The camera saw all that bright snow and tried to compensate -- making the entire scene middle gray.

Here’s what you can do about it:

**1) USE AN AUTOMATIC FUNCTION: The quickest fix is to set your camera dial to the setting that looks like little snow flurries. Some cameras have it, while others don’t. This is the easiest way (without a lot of guesswork on your part) to make sure your camera properly exposes the bright scene on its own.

**2) MANUALLY CHANGE EXPOSURE: If your camera doesn’t have the snow flurry icon, or you want more control over your exposure, you can do it yourself using the exposure compensation dial. This works with most large cameras and some point-and-shoots.

Start by putting your camera into Program mode (usually a P on a dial). Then, use the button that looks like a square with a “+/-” in it to adjust up one or two “stops,” or levels of exposure, usually indicated by a +1 or +2.

The trick is that you want the snow to be white, but not so bright that you lose the subtle details and contours in it. Refer to your histogram and blinking highlights (check your manual if you’re not sure where they are) to see exactly how much of the image is solid white and what detail remains.

Keep these snow photo tips in mind when you bundle up to enjoy your next adventure in the great winter wonderland, so you can take your exposure from this:

 

To this:

 

November’s Photo Challenge theme is: What Are You Thankful For? Submissions are due by 8:00 a.m. EST on Monday, November 30. Submit your ONE best photo, and compete for the monthly prize.

[ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Shelly Perry from Portland, Oregon, specializes in people photography. Her photos are spotted all over the globe -- on music CD covers, books, magazines, catalogues, web sites, ad campaigns, billboards, and even on TV. Her work has also appeared in several local exhibits and gallery shows.

These days, Shelly makes most of her income selling her photos as stock... and she’s having her best year for stock sales EVER. Find out how she and other industry giants do it... and how you can follow in their footsteps... with the Ultimate Stock Photo Workshop-At-Home package.

Further Resources:

Snow Photo Tips: More on taking better photos in the snow from Snapfish

Snow Photo Tips: More tricks for better winter and snow photos from HP

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