Hoarfrost

[jennabug]

We had some beautiful hoarfrost (freezing fog turned into frost on objects) in the tricities this weekend, which is always a favorite of mine.  I was too lazy to get the actual camera and tri-pod out, but snapped some shots with my cell's camera.  Also, it was cold enough to catch a few snowflakes on the horse. 

[Rainier10]

Cool shots.

[MADMAX]

very nice

[Bean Counter]

Wow! I would have loved to see the detail rendered by the 'real' camera and tripod. Next time, please!

Suggestion: Expose to the right.   

[boneaddict]

nice images

[lokidog]

 

[jennabug]

Thanks all!

Wow! I would have loved to see the detail rendered by the 'real' camera and tripod. Next time, please!

Suggestion: Expose to the right.   

Definitely. I need to get it unpacked again from when the basement flooded.    Everything's still in boxes.

Expose to the right?

[Bean Counter]

To expose to the right means to push your histogram as far to the right as you can using exposure compensation (+/- E.C.) without blowing out the critical highlights. The theory is that while your camera's meter is always consistent, it isn't always ideal. In the case of scenes with snow, the camera's meter sees all this white snow and thinks it it needs to darken things up to make it look right. Sure, you can always bump the exposure in post, but its a bad habit: its better to capture it right in camera, even if you have to use higher ISO, and you'll get a much cleaner final image with less noise.

Be sure to check both your histogram and for blinking highlights on the image playback, which are a warning that the part of the image blinking is blown out and no detail will be recovered. That means you've gone too far if you want detail in that part.

I like to push my luck and make things difficult, so I ETTR all. the. time. Not just with snow or bright white. Also, "ETTR" actually means using -E.C. if you have a bright face up against a dark background like a concert stage. If you're going to make a big print or want the ability to its helpful. Here are a few examples of up to two stops of exposure compensation from the straight out of camera image and what the final result is.

Also lots of YouTube videos on the topic.

[Becky]

Beautiful it amazes me how detailed the cameras are on our cell phones now.

[jennabug]

To expose to the right means to push your histogram as far to the right as you can using exposure compensation (+/- E.C.) without blowing out the critical highlights. The theory is that while your camera's meter is always consistent, it isn't always ideal. In the case of scenes with snow, the camera's meter sees all this white snow and thinks it it needs to darken things up to make it look right. Sure, you can always bump the exposure in post, but its a bad habit: its better to capture it right in camera, even if you have to use higher ISO, and you'll get a much cleaner final image with less noise.

Excellent!  Thank you.  That's always been something I wondered how to fix, but didn't know how to explain.  I'll have to try it on my real camera.

[Firedogg]

Sometimes it looks like some kind of torture device from a dungeon.

[rasbo]

very cool catch Jenna,

[boneaddict]

[boneaddict]

and on the cool side of things....

[jennabug]

Very nice Firedogg and boneaddict!