One of the more interesting shots I've taken at one of my winter wildlife workshops is this white Bengal tiger in snow. I love a white on white color scheme, and with such a compelling subject as a tiger, this kind of shot seems particularly dynamic, at least to me. When shooting in snowy conditions in which the majority of the composition is white, I watch the LCD closely. I don't adjust the exposure compensation, which means the pictures will be dark because the camera meter tries to make the white snow 'middle gray'. With film, this would have been a disaster. But when shooting RAW, I prefer some underexposure as a measure to prevent the highlights from blowing out. 'Blown highlights' mean there is no texture or detail in certain areas. It's easy to lighten an image in post-processing until it's perfect, and that's what I relied on here. My settings were 1/250, f/8, 200 ISO. Admittedly, the environment is a bit busy, but in this case, I feel that makes this picture look natural and believable as opposed to a setup.
2 Comments
Jul 30, 2018, 9:47:06 PM
Jim - Bob, That is not a good rule because it depends how much white there is in the frame. So many different variables.
Jul 30, 2018, 9:28:46 PM
Bob - Clearly, your approach works very well. Rather different from the usual recommendation to increase exposure 1-2 stops in order to avoid "middle grey". Beautiful animal!