The shutter speed you use will vary according to the type of shot you're taking. If you're shooting action, such as skiers, snowboarders, or skaters, you'll need a higher shutter speed, like 1/500 or more, in order to freeze the action. You'll have to adjust to a wider aperture accordingly. Landscapes and stills are much more accepting of slower shutter speeds, letting you use a smaller aperture.

You're only going to be successful when shooting in sunshine. To get the best results, shoot in the morning or afternoon, when long shadows create contrast, otherwise your images will be flat, lacking contrast and texture. Altering the angle of light on your subject to create more shadows and contrast is one tactic for getting a good exposure in a snowy environment. By creating more areas of contrast, or shadow, and exposing for those, your meter will give you a reading that's more equally balanced, and a better chance at a properly exposed shot.

The best results though will come from shooting against the sun when it's high in the sky. This'll give the snow its trademark sparkle. However, this presents problems with metering for proper exposure. The highly reflective snow, and all the light coming off of it, will fool your camera's exposure meter into a faster shutter speed and higher aperture than what is actually needed.

Most often, winter shots tend to be underexposed, resulting in a dark, flat image. Figure A is a prime example of the result you'll generally get if you let your camera decide how to expose the shot.

FIGURE A

Settings of uniform color with low or no contrast will confound your exposure meter. Click picture for a larger image.

Note how everything is drab, dark and under exposed. This is what happens when the exposure meter attempts to compensate for all the light it detects reflecting off the snow. The meter is confused, and underexposes the shot. The trick is to expose for something other than the snow itself. The shot in Figure B was exposed for the little girl; unfortunately, the color of her coat contrasted too much with the snow, and the snow was overexposed.

FIGURE B

Compensating for the reflective qualities of snow can be tricky. Click picture for a larger image.

Point and shoot cameras, and SLRs like my wife's Maxxum 300si that are fully automated (and which I hate), have an extremely difficult time compensating for extremes of exposure. These kinds of cameras are almost worthless when it comes to winter photography, as evidenced by the two images in this article. You need to have complete control over the camera's exposure.

The exposure problem that snow represents is compounded with digital cameras, as my limited exposure to them so far has shown me they tend to overexpose to begin with. In addition, a camera's autofocus can be confused by the low contrast that a snow expanse presents, and you may be forced to switch to manual focusing.

The best advice is to read the exposure for your shot using the exposure meter built into your camera, and adjust the aperture up by two stops. So if the meter reads proper exposure at f/11, adjust down to f5.6, this will be your baseline shot. Now bracket your shots, taking one at f/4, one at f/8, and one at the metered f/11. This should give you a broad range of exposures, providing you with at least one at the proper exposure. If your lens supports half-stops, adjust the aperture by 1 1/2 stops instead of a full two, and bracket at each half-stop.