I'm going to the snow this weekend with the D70

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I'm going to the snow this weekend with the D70

Postby Kris on Tue Aug 23, 2005 8:15 pm

I'll be taking my own lenses (50mm F1.4 & the Kit lense)

Can anyone suggest what settings I should be using based on a sunny day, what filters I should be carrying and so on?

I've never shot in snow before...

Thank you PS: Birdy, finally brought the 50mm f1.4 today :P pickup on Friday
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Re: I'm going to the snow this weekend with the D70

Postby robboh on Tue Aug 23, 2005 9:07 pm

Chris,

With film, I would definitely have said a UV filter (not sure about digital?), though a filter would be good for helping keep any snow off the front of the lens and possibly getting into it.

For manual metering, a good start is typically metering off a spot of sun lighted snow and over-exposing by ~2 stops. Id actually quite curious to know how well the meter handles snows since its supposedly colour sensitive.

Darb might be able to help here since he has just been skiing for a week or so.

Edit: that should be spot-meter. If you use the matrix meter for a scene, I expect you will have to add ~1 to 1.3 exposure comp.
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Postby darb on Wed Aug 24, 2005 12:36 am

well, i shoot in snow a fair bit.

no real secrets, except to say a circular polariser will help immensely, i usually matrix meter with no problem, check histograms closely to check highlights arent blowing, but generally i havent found snow to be any different ... except in dark cloudy days where youll need to set EV a few notches higher ... but theyre hardly photgenic days.

if you have any questions about any shots i took let me know ... some here : http://davidsonimagery.com/ (page 1 and page 3)
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Postby Kris on Wed Aug 24, 2005 12:05 pm

Thanks guys

Darb, I will grab one of these filters. Not sure what the weather will be like this weekend so I'll have to check the forecast.

Will be interesting :) I'll post some pictures. For now ill have a gander at yours
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Postby Kris on Wed Aug 24, 2005 12:10 pm

Stupid question - what size polariser do I require for my kit lense?
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Postby MHD on Wed Aug 24, 2005 12:27 pm

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Postby MHD on Wed Aug 24, 2005 12:28 pm

Also if you are shooting figures at close range fill flash will help them be exposed without blowing the whole scene
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Postby Kris on Wed Aug 24, 2005 12:29 pm

Thanks for the tips :)
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Postby Doughnut on Wed Aug 24, 2005 5:46 pm

Hi,

Are you going to carry/take your camera with you while you are skiing? The reason I asked is that I took my D100 with me skiing last year. I stopped to take a few pictures and forgot that my gloves were covered with snow. The result is that snow dropped and melted onto my camera body. Its still working though. My advise is to make sure snow do not get into your camera :wink:

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Postby Kris on Wed Aug 24, 2005 6:19 pm

I'll keep that in mind :D

I always take off my gloves anyway because I have mitts - 0% dexterity :)
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Postby embi on Wed Aug 24, 2005 6:28 pm

Last time I took a camera to the snow was way back xmas 98. I was in the French alps and my camera of the time was a F5. (ok a little bit of a brag :) )

What I did was snowboarded one day and took pics the next. That way I didn't end up with smashed or wet-snow covered gear.

Just my 2 cents.
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Postby Kris on Fri Aug 26, 2005 2:41 pm

Picked up my 50mm F1.4D and Hoya 67mm CPF today :)

I emailed the D70 email about filters but no one replied ;( i ended up forking out $70 for the filter.. oh well
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Postby MHD on Fri Aug 26, 2005 3:05 pm

Kris wrote:I'll keep that in mind :D

I always take off my gloves anyway because I have mitts - 0% dexterity :)

I use big ice climbing gloves so I always take mine off too...

better cold hands than a wet d70
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