How you can make better photographs of snowy scenes!

It is mid-February and it seems there is one snow storm after another in the news lately. So it seemed a good time to offer some tips that might help you to get better photos in snowy scenes.

Don’t trust your camera’s exposure meter!

The one thing that can help your snowy scene photos more than anything else is to override your camera’s exposure setting. It might help to understand that your camera’s exposure meter is programmed to do one thing, determine the proper exposure settings to give your image a medium tone result. Specifically, exposure meters attempt to make everything neutral 18% grey. When you are photographing a snowy scene, you do not want that! So, what do you do?

Camera automatic setting results in underexposure.

Here is an example which shows the result you would get by letting your camera simply choose the exposure settings for you (auto exposure). As you can see, the photo looks dark and grey. Sort of “murky”. This is because the camera meter analyzes the scene and sets an exposure to make everything the average medium tone I referred to earlier. In a scene full of bright white snow, the camera makes the image darker than it should be. The meter is fooled by the scene and mistakenly underexposes the image.

Properly exposed image by overriding camera meter

To correct the problem you need to either override or trick the camera’s meter. As you see in this photo, the scene is properly exposed with the snow appearing a beautiful bright white. You see improved results even in the few darker areas as well with the horses showing better color rendition and detail. In the case of this image I simply made an adjustment in my camera settings so the meter would compensate by “overexposing” by a factor of 1.6 stops. A compensation setting of somewhere between 1 and 2 stops usually works well.

But what if your camera doesn’t allow you to override the meter function? Well, in some cases you can fool the camera’s meter into giving you an overexposed result. (Truth be told you would be fooling the camera into giving you the correct exposure, but that is semantics.) With most modern cameras, when you are ready to take a photo you will press down the shutter release button partially and the camera will set its auto-focus and auto-exposure based on the scene you are viewing. To fool your camera into giving you a brighter exposure, you would aim your camera at a scene made up of darker tones (but at the same distance from you as the scene you intend to photograph) and press the shutter release button down to establish the focus and exposure settings. Then while still holding the button in that position, recompose your photo in the viewfinder and take the photo. This trick will not work on all cameras but will on some. You would have to try it with your own camera to know if it will work for you or not.

Try and catch the sun, early or late.

With the sun low in the sky the shadows get interesting

Next is a tip that can actually apply to any outdoors photography, not just snowy scenes. If you can make your photos early or late in the day and manage to have some nice sunlight to work with, the images will undoubtedly look better. Early and late in the day the suns light has more pleasing color to it giving a bit of warmth to the scene. Additionally, with the sun lower in the sky at these times there are more interesting shadows giving shape and character to the subjects in your images.

Carry extra batteries and hold them close!

Another great tip for doing photography in snowy and cold conditions. Cold conditions have a negative effect on usable battery life. In really cold conditions the usable life of your batteries charge can be reduced to half or even less what it would be at room temperature. The catch to this particular tip is not just to carry extra batteries with you, but it is to carry them close to you. The idea is that you want those batteries to be as warm as possible, otherwise the cold shortens their usable charge just like the ones in your camera. So, keep them in a pocket close to your body and use your bodies heat to keep them in good shape. One day that tip could help you get that last shot that really means something!

Put your camera in a zip lock bag.

That might sound odd but let me explain. If you have been using your camera outside in the cold conditions for a while, the cameras body adjusts to the cold temperatures. Then when you bring that camera (and more importantly, lenses) inside to room temperature, you will often find that the camera and lens will very quickly become covered by condensation on the surface. It is moisture in the warm inside air which condenses on the camera’s cold surfaces. It’s like a moist cloud settled on your camera and it is going to take a good while before it dries out.

Next time try this. While you are still out in the cold conditions, place your camera inside a zip lock bag, then bring it inside. Once inside, leave the camera in the plastic bag for a few minutes allowing the camera body to adjust to room temperature. You will find that the adjustment to room temperature doesn’t take very long and thanks to the zip lock bag, there will be no condensation to worry about either!

I hope you will find some of these ideas useful and maybe it inspires you to get out there in the cold and find some great photographs!

Share This Post!

Are you a “Megaphone” or “Hearing Aid” Twitter user?

Lately I have had the opportunity to observe two competing organizations, both of which use Twitter as a tool in their business communications but who do so in very different ways. For me this has been a living example of two opposing approaches to using Twitter, one good and the other really NOT. Here is one way their approaches differ which helps illustrate my point.

Megaphone or Hearing Aid?
With one of the users in my informal case study the organization is using Twitter as a Megaphone. They speak but do not listen. It is easy to recognize a Megaphone Twitter user by simply looking at their totals for “Followers” vs. “Following”. For the Megaphone Twitter user the number of followers is always larger than the number of users they are following. It is usually a large disparity between the two. The offending user I have observed has hundreds of followers while following barely a handful. For me, this sends the clear message that they are not interested in what anyone else has to say. Fail.

On the other hand, the other organization in my case study is a true Hearing Aid user. Their totals for followers vs. following are a much more even balance. But more important than that, this user often replies to or retweets information from other users they follow, something the Megaphone Twitter user never does. They are using Twitter not only as a way to broadcast their own information, but also as a listening device. They get it, this is truly “social media”, an interaction not a message board.

I would not begin to suggest that I could say if one approach is better than another. It all depends on what you hope to get out of using Twitter I suppose. What I can say though is that in my own list of users that I follow I value the Hearing Aid users much more than those who are Megaphone users. When it comes down to it, the Megaphone users do not stay in my “following” list for long.

So who are you, a Megaphone or a Hearing Aid user?

Follow SteadmanTech on Twitter

Share This Post!

Answer Your Questions Instantly with Google SMS

If you are anything like me you are a heavy SMS text message user. Sending a message limited to no more than 160 characters may at first seem a bit senseless, but you soon find it to be very useful and even a bit addicting. It is the perfect solution for those moments when you need to share some information, a thought or idea, but it really doesn’t require a conversation.

Here is a great little tip to a tool you can use to get information in return. Google offers their Google SMS service which is like having almost any information search right there in the palm of your hand. All you need to remember is the Google SMS texting number which is “GOOGLE” (”466453″ on most mobile devices). What could be easier?

Here is how it works. Just send your inquiry to Google SMS at “466453″ and in barely a minute or less Google will send you a response, usually an accurate answer to your question. To make this work even better Google has optimized the system to easily handle certain types of inquiries. Try these for example.

Current movie listings – text “Movies 54321″ (using your zip code)
Latest sports scores – text “Score Yankees” (name your favorite team)
Current weather conditions – text “Weather Chicago” (name your preferred city or zip code)

For a more detailed list of the optimized Google SMS inquiry options go to the Google Mobile SMS web page and text away. Google will answer virtually any of your questions instantly as simple as that! Best of all, this service is a free product from Google (your standard text messaging rates still apply as they say…)

Share This Post!

What is a Favicon, Why Would I Want One?

A favicon is sometimes referred to as a bookmark icon, shortcut icon, favorite icon or website icon. In most modern web browsers you will see the favicon displayed in the browser’s address bar next to the url of the Web site you are visiting. On this blog site you should see a red “ST” logo in the address bar of your browser window, similar to what you see highlighted in the graphic above.

Most browsers that support the display of favicons will also show the icon next to entries in your bookmarks or favorites lists. If you are using a browser which offers tabbed browsing, you will typically also see the favicon shown in each tab next to the web page title.

There are two very good reasons to be sure your Web site includes a favicon.

1. It makes your Web site user friendly
   If your browser supports the display of favicons then you already know this to be true. The favicon makes it much easier to recognize a particular Web site you may be looking for in your tabs, bookmarks or favorites lists.
2. Establishing and reinforcing brand/organization identity
   Statistics vary but most agree that it takes some repetition before people will remember your company or organizations visual identity. Use of the favicon is an effective means of building on that recognition.

Those seem like two compelling reasons to be sure that your Web site offers a favicon to its visitors. Your Web site developer should be able to install a favicon for you. If you need help you can of also look to SteadmanTech for help with this and any other web development needs.

Share This Post!

Photoshop Tip: Reset Your Dialog Boxes Quick and Easy!

Here is a quick Photoshop tip that might save you a bit of time. Some of Photoshops dialog boxes can get a bit busy and before you know it you are thinking you want to go back and start again from square one. It is simple enough to just dismiss the dialog box using the Cancel button then start over. But you can get there quicker and easier. Here’s how.

From almost any active Photoshop dialog box which presents you with the OK and Cancel buttons you have another option. The option that I speak of is the Option key (Alt on the PC) on your keyboard. No kidding, bad play on words I know. With your dialog box active just press-and-hold the Option key (Alt on the PC) and Photoshop will instantly change the Cancel button to read “Reset”. While still holding the Option key, click on the Reset button. You are now reset back to where you began when first opening up this dialog box and you never had to leave the dialog box to get there! Now you start over changing your settings and adjustments as needed.

Share This Post!