Jan 24, 2021
the importance of incident light metering
by matt
It’s not easy photographing snow. Well – it’s not easy if you let your camera make all the decisions. But if you’re a film shooter like me who has a camera that can’t make any decisions, then that part of the problem is removed. All you need is to measure the amount of incident (not reflected) light that is falling onto your scene, and you’re good to go. And an extra stop of light doesn’t go amiss either. I always shoot my Kodak Portra by over exposing it at least one stop. The film can handle it without flinching. Taking a shot like this with a digital camera would probably need at least two blended exposures – one for the snow and one for the sky. With Portra 400, meter for the shadows to correctly expose them, and the film will take the rest in its stride with ease.