Winter is starting to bite here in Derby: we’ve had fog, frost, wind, rain and now the forecast is for snow. All great photo opportunities, of course. Last week I was out in Allestree Park fairly early, in a bone-chilling mist. As the morning went on the sun started to break through and I managed to get quite a few shots. Here are a few of them:
I shot them with my Lumix LX3, using Aperture Priority mode, which normally gives me accurate exposure. However, when shooting in misty or snowy conditions the camera’s light meter doesn’t always understand the change in lighting conditions, and will compensate for the apparent increase in brightness by under-exposing your images. To avoid the mist looking grey when it should be almost white, use the exposure compensation button on the camera to over-expose by around 2/3rds of an f stop. I did this, but even so I had to make more adjustments in Lightroom as the histogram was still indicating under-exposure. I will post more tips on exposure in following weeks.
Note: one of the quirky things about the Lumix is that it offers an aspect ratio of 1:1 (i.e. square pictures) which I enjoy using for landscapes – it’s a bit like using a medium format camera again.