Merry Christmas from Lenspiration!

As we dwellers of the northern reaches of the northern hemisphere begin taking snowy photos, here are 3 little tips that I hope you find helpful in editing them to perfection!

1. Change canvas color to white

Here’s a snowy photo that appears to be properly exposed.

However, as soon as I change the canvas color to white, it’s easier to tell it is slightly underexposed for sun-lit snow.

So, by turning the background canvas white, it allows me to edit the photo to be a proper exposure.

In Lightroom, I change the background canvas color by right clicking on the canvas itself.

2. Only set the White Point

When editing normal photos, I almost always set the white point and the black point. But for snowy scenes, it may not necessarily be advantageous to set both. Here’s an unedited snowy photo.

I set the white point, did some basic edits, and then set the black point and this is what it looks like.

Nice, but too contrasty for my liking.

So in snowy photos, I’ll often not set the black point. Instead, it’s more just editing to taste. And it looks more snowy that way.

3. Reduce contrast

To make things look more snowy, I’ll often decrease contrast intentionally. Without going too far, of course. Usually, I’ll lighten Shadows, reduce Contrast, decrease Clarity, and then compensate a bit by increasing Dehaze.

It’s amazing how a little editing can make a snowy photo look more enchanting!

And there’s a little analogy in this. God is like the “Master Editor”. He is constantly tweaking us. Working on turning us from a raw photo to a masterpiece that is perfect! If God is working in our lives, we will look different after His working. Think about the shepherds in the Christmas story. They were just normal shepherds doing their normal thing. But after God revealed his plan of a Savior to them, they were completely different people, glorifying and praising God and making known abroad the saying which was told them concerning the child Jesus. May our daily encounters with God in our devotions every morning slowly shape us into the perfect work of art that God wants our lives to be!

“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” II Corinthians 3:18.