Winter patterns

[kat]

Went out for a quick walk while it wasn't -40 out!!

These wouldn't be photos I'd print alone but maybe in a collage..

What do you think of the colors, dof and all that jazz...

And how in the world do you make it so your pics aren't so big??? I reduce the size to below 1000 (which took me forever to figure out) but they still are coming out huge!!!


Thanks!

[tirediron]

Good ideas, nice, creative thinking. Technically a few minor issues: In #1, the snow is at least 1 stop over-exposed, and thus suffering from blown highlights. Remember that your camera's meter is designed to measure off of a middle grey, so bright white is a real challenge. In a situation like this, you can achieve good results by spot-metering the palm of your hand (assuming average caucasian skin) and adding one stop (ie, you meter your hand, the camera zeros out at 1/125 @ f8, you would either select 1/250 @ f8 or 1/125 @ f11, etc). Number 2 is better, but the snow is still just a bit too bright. I'm thinking about 1/2 stop less here would have been ideal. In #3, you have the same issue; I'd also like to see just a little more DoF; it's hard to tell exactly where the point of focus in this image is. When shooting this time of image, always use your DoF Preview Function to see what it looks like stopped down before shooting. Additionally, I think I might crop out that first little bit of Superbox image right.

[kat]

That is a lot to take in for me but at the same time all makes sense. This is my first winter shooting and just that alone will help a loooooot. I was finding that with a lot of photos!

I've never had to use the spot meter before (or should I say have had the guts to try it) but now on the new task of reading how, why and when.

Out of curiousity, spot meter would that be best for a high sunlight photo..like if you were in Mexico?

[tirediron]

Out of curiousity, spot meter would that be best for a high sunlight photo..like if you were in Mexico?

No; Matrix/wide-area metering is the best for about 99% of photography. The reason I recommend using the spot meter to meter your palm is that the wide-area and center-weighted modes will take in too wide an area, and may bias the exposure. By using spot mode (which only measures a very narrow point) you ensure that you're only taking information from the palm of your hand.

[Marko]

Shot 3 is the strongest image for me here based on a good interesting repeating pattern.