Exposure compensation. How to get the snow white!!!

When you take pictures in the snow, your camera meter is fooled by all of the white in the picture and under exposes the images by about 1.5 stops.
I thought I would test this theory and took the three images above.
you can see the image on the left is too dark and the Histogram is to the left. In the centre image I have adjusted the camera by +2 stops of compensation and the graph is just creeping off the right hand side of the Histogram, overexposing some of the sky. Adding 1.5 stops to the centre image would have been about right.
The right hand image shows the correct exposure with the sky, snow and car all correctly exposed. Notice the graph has not reached the right hand side of the Histogram. For this shot I used a handheld ambient light meter to get the exact reading which was +1.5 stops. Oh just one more thing! The blacks are on the left of the graph and whites are on the right.
NOTE! Even if you own a compact point and shoot camera, you can adjust the exposure compensation using the (P) program Mode as shown on the photo of the screen on my Fuji.

Home Made Christmas Card from the Churchill's

I wanted to make a Christmas card that I could send to my friends on Facebook so with the help of Gavin Hoeys tutorial I produced this video from 9 images taken from a Photoshop PSD file. The images were then imported into Windows Movie Maker so that I could make the card twinkle. Some of the9  images were used quite a few times to make the lights flash on and off. I know its not professional quality but I have learnt a new trick which I can explore and refine.

Robin on Footbridge

Robin on Footbridge, originally uploaded by Ian_Churchill2010.

Here is another image of a different Robin taken on the same day as the last post. The image was taken in a quiet gloomy area at the same country park. I think this image shows a different mood than the last one. Again I have positioned the bird in the frame according to the rule of thirds ie. the Robins eye is a third of the way in from the top and side of the image. Its much better than putting things in the middle as it guides your eye through the image. Thats COMPOSITION!

A Friendly Robin. A welcome splash of Colour on a dull December day .

I took a trip to my local country park on a cold and grey December afternoon, hoping to capture some wildlife shots. Birds keep people at a safe distance so walking around with a camera just scares them away. I decided to sit quietly for a while and wait. Within a few minutes this Robin and a Nuthatch perched about 4 feet away just looking at me. I carefully lifted my camera and the Nuthatch flew away, leaving this friendly robin. Maybe next time I'll take some wild bird food with me to attract the birds in close.