Shooting in snow

Thusie

Yes I'm finding it rather a challange even with setting the WB pretty well this time. The ony thing I'm adjusting in raw is the WB and exposure, setting everything 0 and turning off auto. The pictures are meant as examples only of the different conifers so that is the sole focus, with odd crops, but shooting green, bluish or goldish blobs in snow is rather driving me nuts. While the conifers are not at their best color right now, trying to get what they have right and keep the snow believable..Using PSE3, below are 3 examples. This is a huge project, for me anyway, and a gift for the guy who makes the $$$ and has let me spend it pretty much how I want:D There are 150 different conifers and we want winter shots to compare with the spring 'flush' shots.
Please look at the examples and tell me what I'm doing wrong. Thanks

This shot everything in the background looks to be fairly accurate to me, but the Hoops and the snow, odd.



This gold job..yellow cast snow?



Now this one with other colors in the background, the tree color is perfect, but the snow seems of again?



I needto get these are right as I can since I'm not real hot with PSE.

rutt

See: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=6366

Thusie

rutt wrote:

See: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=6366

Rutt,

If I am understanding this correctly it is 'ok' to blow the snow highlights to get the best color for the subject, within reason? I have been using shadows/highlights and color cast correction to try and get as much detail back into the snow. Ok try this again, over correcting for the blown snow and mucking up the picture.
Here is the one picture after minor adjustment in raw. Should have left well enough alone? Parinoid about 'blue' snow maybe?
Thanks Rutt, your TT's are super.

rutt

I might approach this a little differently now than last year when that thread was written.

1. In CS2/ACR, use the "Curves" tab and select "linear"
2. Sill in CS2/ACR, select the "Adjust" tab and juse the eye dropper to color balance on the snow in shadow (if there is any.)
3. Still in CS2/ACR use the "Exposure" slider to avoid clipping the highlights. If you check the preview and highlight boxes you'll be able to see red where the clipping occurs.
4. In PS proper, convert to LAB and use the curves from the tutorial, L curve steep in the highlights to bring out the snow detail. B curve just a little asymmetric to move the color balance of the sunlit snow a bit toward blue.
5. Slightly more advanced version: Use blending options and blend if lightness to limit the slight blue cast from the previous step to the extreme highlights. Be sure to split the blend if slider to avoid harsh transitions from blue to white snow.

If you post an original, after the raw conversion I described, I'll be happy to show the last few steps, including the advanced version.

Thusie

Rutt,

Will do my best since ACR in PSE3 looses some features.

Thusie

Ok here tis. No curves in ACR but did use the eye dropper and highigh for the clipping (pretty cool:):) I use the shadow/highlight to take the place of curves (just remembered I think there is a hack somewhere to add that to PSE) and then tried to use color cast to get a bit of blue back in the snow. Would love to have CS2 it just isn't in the cards right now..Do have a book on PE3 and learning exposure on the way..
Thanks Rutt and even tho I have PSE I would love to see what you do with the photo.

rutt

First I used these curves:



That got the good contrast and texture in the snow and also the neutral (shade) and slightly blue (sun) snow that I think looks good. But those curves weren't good for the tree or the deep shadows. Those want to be more green. So I used Dan Margulis' chapter 9 technique and used the B channel to make a mask for the tree (really easy) and then applied a asymetrical A curve to just the tree.

Thusie

Thanks Rutt!!!
I installed the curves hack for PSE so this explanation will be a real help. I like the blue sun snow too, just for some reason got it in my head that should not be there But that is how it looks in real life!

Again thanks for your time.