PERFECT Exposure & White Balance For Winter Landscape Photography

[@SimonBurnCreative]

I'm unusually chatty in this one, sharing my thought process for a few compositions I found that day.

[@PaulNewberyPhotography]

Winter wonderland it's the only way I get to see snow is on KZbin videos 😂 Merry Christmas and a happy new year

[@SimonBurnCreative]

Lol, cheers Paul, Merry Christmas!

[@strote]

Lovely winter landscapes. Wonderful locations. Thanks for the white balance tips.

[@SimonBurnCreative]

A pleasure Sir, thank you.

[@chris_sparrows]

You're making me want to dig out my snowshoes, though where I live we don't get a lot of snow in the winter, unless I travel up the mountain. Love hearing your thought process. Have you ever done a series, taking the same photo in the different seasons and displaying them together?

[@SimonBurnCreative]

Dig them out! No, never tried shooting the same scene in different seasons. Maybe 2025 is the year to do that. 😅

[@nevillewatkins4997]

The snow really made those features stand out. Cracking shots! Good tip about the white balance.

[@SimonBurnCreative]

Cheers Nevillle! Have a great Christmas. 🎅🏼

[@nevillewatkins4997]

@@SimonBurnCreative And you Simon.

[@alwyng572]

Really enjoyed that. My favourite of the iceberg shots was the second one where you caught the ‘bergs in the middle looking quite static and the others circling round. Fabulous shot! Guessing that was the 3 second exposure. Worth getting drenched for! Have to admit I adjust WB in post and leave it on AWB when in the field, the Z8 usually does a really good job in AWB mode but for sunsets and sunrises I use cloudy or shade to give me an idea of what I can expect to get a when I edit the RAW file. Looking forward your next video! Happy Christmas!

[@SimonBurnCreative]

Thank you! Ah, I knew I should have put the exposure times on those photos and saying them wasn't enough. Yes, the one you like was 3 seconds.

[@sorinmarcian967]

Thank You, Simon, I liked your walk in the wood, kind of wet, none the less , beautiful.

[@SimonBurnCreative]

🙂 🙏

[@KeyserTheRedBeard]

Impressive content, Simon Burn : Photography / Filmmaking. Looking forward to seeing your next upload from you. I clicked that thumbs up icon on your video. Keep up the fantastic work! Your insights on exposure techniques in challenging conditions are so helpful. Have you considered discussing the impact of different metering modes on final image quality in future videos?

[@SimonBurnCreative]

I did a bad job of communicating it, but I was saying that the metering modes make no difference because I don't use them, I just use the histogram. If I were to choose one, it would be highlight priority. Thanks.

[@keithpinn152]

Hi Simon: Thanks for creating and sharing this video. I really liked the images that you captured at this location. I find that the colour tonality caused by the "iron-rich" water adds a great deal to the images. You have given me the motivation to drive north to this location. Do you ever use a "gray-card" to capture white balance, or do you find that you can get a proper white-balance within your RAW editor. Keep well and best wishes for a Happy Holiday Season, and I hope that you get some better "water-proof" clothing for our ever-changing winter seasons in Ontario. Cheers, Keith (Barrie, Ontario). P.S. If you have already done so, Hogg's Falls in Flesherton is a great location for winter shots.

[@SimonBurnCreative]

Hi Keith, I do think it's worth the drive to North Bay to spend time at this location. I stay overnight at the Hampton Inn, just a few minutes from the falls. Funnily enough I had a little grey card in my bag and I was going to talk about it, but the bad conditions didn't inspire me to do so. A grey card works very well. To be honest, auto WB works great when shooting raw, and minor adjustments can be done in post. I just prefer to manually set my Kelvin. I visited Hogg's Falls about 5 years ago, loved it. You've reminded me I need to go back again.

[@neilt]

Great location, nice images. There's an argument that leaving your WB on 5500 produces images that look like what you see - especially if in town during the evening.

[@SimonBurnCreative]

Cheers Neil. Argument, I don't get into arguments 😁 😅 Actually, for varying evening conditions I find auto WB is good too, and adjust in post.

[@David-i7b8y]

You had me up to the part where you cloned out parts of your scene.

[@SimonBurnCreative]

A couple of distracting tiny twigs that made the composition messy? Should I have left then in then? It's so minor it's no different to cloning out dust spots.

[@David-i7b8y]

@@SimonBurnCreative Dust spots arn't part of the scene. In my opinion,only signs and trash should be cloned out and leave the scene untouched.

[@SimonBurnCreative]

@@David-i7b8y So remove man-made things then, got it 👍

[@nevvanclarke9225]

CPL filter .... And change the white balance to 5.5 K that's the two tips I would give anyone and even underexposed by one stop just so you don't blow out the highlights in the snow. It's so easy to do without you realising you're doing it.

[@SimonBurnCreative]

5.5k is my default, but I find CPL doesn't always work, when the water is dark.

[@nevvanclarke9225]

@@SimonBurnCreative I just run a gradient around the water and change the colour of it but I'm very lucky mate. I use a medium format camera and the dynamic range in that thing is absolutely absurd. It's one of the reasons I use a medium format camera for landscape photography because the dynamic range is just so absurd you can pretty much do whatever you like with the file. I don't have to do bracketing any more hallelujah for that.

[@MrMuckiMicki-jo3lh]

Schmutziger brauner Schnee wird auch nicht in der Bildbearbeitung weiß!