By Kevin Donoghue

When I studied photography in college, it was FILM and a traditional wet darkroom. Digital was in its infancy and not readily available (yes, I'm aging myself here). With film, I had to expose for the highlights and develop for the shadows.

So just how do you do that with digital? College did not teach me this. I had to (and am STILL) experimenting with different techniques.

Here are some things I learned and wanted to share when photographing snow:

• WHITE BALANCE! Different sources of light have a different color or temperature. Our eyes adjust automatically but the sensor does not.
• Increase your exposure by at least one full stop. (+1 setting)
• Spot metering for bright sunny conditions.
• Shoot early or later in the day (Golden Hours). Full sun with blue sky yields a very high contrast image. I prefer some sun peeking in periodically. This requires patience.
• Never shoot toward the sun. Best results are when the sun is to your side or at your back.
• Step down to a narrow f-stop / aperture (unless your scene requires a shallow depth of field) I prefer f22 and a tripod.
• If you can, shoot in RAW. This provides extra exposure compensation that can be used in post production. This is also known as the digital darkroom (Photoshop and Lightroom).

As always with digital photography, SHOOT and SHOOT A LOT!

There is no such thing as a bad picture, just a step along the way to a GREAT picture!

 ~ Kevin