A decade ago, shooting winter scenes was a serious photographic challenge. Unforgiving film, coupled with the glare of the snow, made getting the right exposure tricky.

Today, advanced metering (found in even the most rudimentary digital point-and-shoot cameras) solves most exposure issues. And, with the ability to review results in the field, make adjustments and then tweak digital files back at home, no one should hesitate to yank their cameras out on a sunny winter’s day.

Before Digital Cameras

Way back in the luddite days of slide film, my friend Chris Ferguson and I set out on a cold January morning to climb Mt. Andromeda in the Canadian Rockies. Leaving Calgary at 4 a.m., we stopped in Canmore for coffee and doughnuts, arriving at the base of the mountain just as dawn began to warm the eastern sky. I was nervous, as the route would stretch the limits of my ability, and, as is so often the case, it looked darn intimidating from the parking lot.

Thankfully, the snow proved stable, and the footing solid. Falling into the meditative rhythm of climbing, we moved upwards, one rope length at a time, setting anchors in snow or ice. Slowly, the gully narrowed and steepened, grey rocks closing in around us.

Light snow began to fall and spray from the river began cascading over us, occasionally finding a way beneath our helmets and hoods, washing across sweaty backs and eliciting a holler. A few hundred metres beneath the final cornice, I pulled alongside Chris, and, for the first time that day, thought to yank my camera out of its chest harness for a picture.  

Fingers numb, calves twitching, I hurriedly tried to navigate the mental arithmetic that would lead to a well-exposed photo in the snow. The challenge was that my camera’s meter wanted to make everything it saw an average tone of grey, including the white snow, so I knew I needed to add light, or overexpose the shot, to make the snow look white. But how much?



Take a peek at the only image I took that winter day, and you’ll see I blew the calculation! Chris and the snow are much too dark. Which isn’t to say the photo is a waste—it still brings back a flood of memories. But it highlights the classic challenge of shooting in the snow.

The Background

Slide and print film offered little latitude for exposure errors. You had to get it right—on the first try!—because there was no opportunity to review your work in the field, and subsequently change your camera’s settings.

All of this made photography in the snow a sort of hallowed ground for serious amateurs. Thankfully, new digital cameras make photography amidst snow and ice much easier, although few admit it.

For some reason, photography courses and tip-based websites still insist a photographer go through a complicated guesstimation process to determine proper exposure. Phooey. It’s not necessary at all.

Check out the image below. It shows how easy digital winter photography can be—straight out of the camera and shot on auto mode with no post-production work.

How to Properly Take a Picture in the Snow 

To take a properly exposed picture of a snow scene, follow these simple steps:

1. Compose your shot, and take it without adjusting anything (i.e. in fully auto mode).

Nine times out of 10, your camera will have guessed right on its own. Modern cameras sample many areas of the scene, and use complicated algorithms to discount things like bright segments towards the top of the frame. But don’t stop there.

2. Look at your results.

If you like the picture, voilà, you’re done. If it appears too dark, simply adjust your exposure compensation (see below) to +1.0. Recompose and shoot again. If the image appears too bright (which is also possible), try backing off the exposure compensation, to -0.7.

3. Keep tweaking your exposure compensation till you get a shot you like.

It’s really easy: + makes the shot brighter, - makes the shot darker. If you tweak your exposure compensation (either in the + or - direction), make sure to set it back to zero afterwards. Otherwise, all your future shots will have the same compensation.

Ask Bruce: Changing Camera Exposure

“How the heck do I change the exposure compensation on my camera?”

—Regina MacNeil, Whitby, ON



Exposure compensation controls are either a +/- button on the back of your camera, or an option in the menu. Taking the time to learn where these controls are is worth the effort. Not only will they help you take shots in the snow, but tweaking your images a bit lighter or darker is a useful trick for dealing with nearly every challenging light situation: sunsets, silhouettes, shooting into the sun, etc.

Most point-and-shoots have the control buried in a menu option.

A few have it as a button control on the back. Look for the giveaway symbol. If you can’t find it, consult your manual.