My dad told me to never trust a light meter in snow, and he was right

This was back in 1998. I was new to my Pentax K1000 and shooting a ski trip in Vermont. The snow was bright, the sky was clear. My dad, who shot film for years, said, 'The meter will lie. It wants to make the snow gray. Open up two stops from what it says.' I didn't listen. I shot a whole roll at the meter's reading. Got the prints back. Every shot of my friends on the slopes was dark, like a gloomy afternoon. Their faces were just shadows. I lost all that crisp white detail. He was right. The meter got fooled. Now I always add light for snow. It's a simple fix but it makes all the difference. Anyone else have an old tip like that they learned the hard way?

2 comments

2 Comments

spencer7078d ago

My uncle shot for a local paper in the 80s and said the same thing about sand at the beach. Meter sees all that bright stuff and wants to turn it into a middle gray mess. He had a trick for his old Nikon FE where he'd meter off the palm of his hand in the same light and then open up one stop from that. Saved his butt on a bunch of coastal assignments. That gray card theory is everywhere once you start looking for it.

lee.cole8d ago

Yeah, it's like any tool just gives you an average. You have to know when the average is wrong for what you're actually looking at. My car's GPS tries to take me down closed roads all the time.