Snowflakes are one of a kind, beautiful, and there has always been something wonderful about crunching along the fresh new snow in the winter. However, snow can be a drag when trying to capture a landscape.
On a recent snowy trip, I found my digital camera's auto settings using flash and 400 ISO, which left white blotches all over my shots during snow fall. Fortunately, after a combination of trial, error and a recommendation from another photographer, I found that a quick fix is to turn off the flash, use a higher ISO (800 or 1600) and a faster shutter speed. While I had slightly lighter blacks, my results were far better than the white blotches.
Written by Devin Galaudet
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This is a good thought, especlally about turning OFF the flash. In general, shooting manually (even partially, such as Shutter or Aperture priority) will yield better shots 90% of the time, with Auto being great for run-and-gun stuff.
Also, keep in mind that ISO settings for digital cameras are TOTALLY different than it used to be for film. In the “old days”, an ISO of 400+ looked grainy. With digital, ISO settings up to 1600 look nearly identical to ISO 200. I have shot at 3200 ISO, with almost imperceptible quality loss.
Try it for yourself, and be amazed at how little difference ISO settings make anymore.