Re: Exposure.....not to worry!

Jim's comment made me think about why I didn't use the word histogram. I "check" the histogram all the time, it is part of my routine. But I rarely "use" the histogram because the meter does such a good job. Apparently todays meters do more than measure light, they are also little computers that interpret what they are seeing and adjust accordingly. So they sense the bright snow and open up. Or at least that seems to be what is happening. I have also read that the meters on "consumer" cameras often assume we are taking backlit pictures and open up accordingly, so that if left on factory settings they tend to overexpose. So I set my camera to underexpose by 0.7 f-stops, and that seems to work well. That also relates to Kevin's comment about not blowing out the highlights. As Kevin notes, in post processing you can recover underexposed details, but blown out highlights (snow) are generally lost. It is nice to be able to capture some "texture" in the snow. So while it is helpful to check the histogram and avoid blowing out highlights, net net the bulk of my images are taken using the meter adjusted to underexpose by 0.7 stops. I rarely have to make an adjustment based on the histogram. But those exceptions can be important to it is important to check the histogram.

JBWX