Snow can be tricky with slide film, which can blow out the highlights easily. I usually shoot print film of it, myself. Depending on the brightness of the light reflecting off the snow, you can open up anywhere from 1-3 stops. With slide film, I would add +2/3 comp for more overcast days and +1 to +1.5 for brighter days.
A better idea would be to bring a small, simple incident light meter. No compensation necessary: just take a meter reading of the light, put your camera on manual, and leave it there until the light changes. Grey cards can do the same thing, but you have to make sure you're shooting it at the correct angle so you don't get crazy reflections that mess up your reading. I've had good success with metering off tree trunks with print film. Oh, and if he wants to apply exp. comp. with slide film, tell him to put his metering mode on center-weighted, or spot if he knows what he's doing. Compensating for multi-pattern metering is more or less useless, since you have no idea how much--if at all--the camera is already compensating for the snow. For that reason, I would never shoot really bright or really dark subjects on multi-pattern metering with slide film... you have no idea how much the camera is compensating, and too little exposure latitude to be sure of getting a good shot without bracketing. If he doesn't need to shoot slides, he stands a better chance of getting good snow exposures with print film. If he wants to shoot slides, either take an incident meter and bracket a little, or apply an exp. comp. guesstimate and bracket a lot. :) chris On Thu, 12 Feb 2004 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > A co worker is heading for a ski vacation in Europe this weekend and > has a > bunch of > Velvia and Provia 400F. We were talking about metering for bright snow,which > methods,hand > held,gray cards,back of hand etc.One i thought of,and his camera can do it is work > with > EV. > He seems to want to shoot in a program mode of some sort and I dont use EV at > all,but i > said i would > check this for him. > If he uses the program mode and its bright snowy day,his camera will try to > undewrexpose > the snow.I > suggested using+1.5 or +1.7 EV and that should help. > > Did i send him the right way.? > > Myself i would do it manually with a hand held reading,but, you know kids these > days. :-) > > I'll fwd any response to his email. > Thanks in advance > > Dave > >
