I'd very much like to give you an example of a properly exposed winter shot, but because of the inherent difficulties, I tend to shy away from taking them. The film I use isn't exactly cheap, and there are the developing costs of a professional lab to take into account as well.

That said, while Connected Photographer's Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz tells me he hates winter, for some reason, he's really into winter photography. He gave me two examples that showcase wintry scenes. The first, shown in Figure C, takes advantage of the inherent contrast of the mountain.

FIGURE C


Pay attention to the blackest blacks and the whitest whites. Roll over picture for a larger image.

As David describes it, "Black and white imagery is so powerful, rendering this photo forbidding, yet beautiful. When converting an original color scan into black and white, a great deal of attention needs to be paid to the blackest blacks and the whitest whites, in order to bring out the highlights and shadows. I'm quite satisfied with the results in this image, although the black area on the right side of the image retained much more texture in the high resolution print that hangs on my wall."

Another approach is to provide a vivid contrast between the subject of the photo and the surrounding background, as David did in Figure D.

FIGURE D


Provide a vivid contrast between the subject and the surrounding image. Roll over picture for a larger image.

David says, "Sometimes the contrast of the scene is nothing short of breathtaking. The juxtaposition of a vivid man-made object against a natural backdrop is just stunning."

If you'd like to try your hand at winter photography just remember, by default, your images are going to be underexposed, and you'll need to compensate for that. Good luck and good shooting.

James Booth is Editor-at-Large at ZATZ Publishing. In addition to writing for Computing Unplugged and Connected Photographer, he's the author of Do-It-Yourself Wedding Photography. A self-taught photographer, James also dabbles in digital graphics and has learned to be a PC and handheld specialist through personal trial and error. James can be reached at jbooth@zatz.com.