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This picture of a tree out in the snow shows a lot of negative space and that is what I was going for. I try to take pictures with minimal extra “stuff”. I had to get low to the ground in order to not show trees and houses in the background. The tree was on a slight hill which made that easier.
I like this photo but I think it might be a little underexposed. What do you guys think?
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It’s fun experimenting isn’t it? 🙂 Good job on getting rid of all the distractions in the background!
The photo is definitely underexposed. Here’s a trick to help you tell if your snowy image is underexposed… Take a piece of white paper and hold it up beside your photo; is the snow as white as the paper? (Of course, the screen brightness will affect the outcome.) But the takeaway is to train your eyes to look. When you look at the snow compared to your bright white paper, the snow looks grey, doesn’t it? But when don’t have a white reference point, your eyes and brain work together to “trick” you into seeing white because your brain knows that snow is supposed to look white. As photographers, we have to pay attention to the tricks our brain plays on us, and compensate. 🙂
I’ve attached my edit of your photo brightened up more to what looks a bit more “white” to my eyes.
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Nice. I didn’t get the impression, on my screen, that it looked bad underexposed. The exposure chosen fits the mood well I think. Usually shots like this are b&w, but I like the subtle blue tones you’ve included. I don’t know if you had the ability to do this without including distracting elements, but I think I would have chosen not to trim off any of the tree branches at all. With part of the tree trimmed off, it’s hinted that the tree wants to be a framing element… but there’s nothing for it to frame. You did a very good job of eliminating distractions with the hill. I’m always on the look out for lone trees.
The photo is definitely underexposed.
I didn’t get the impression, on my screen, that it looked bad underexposed. The exposure chosen fits the mood well I think.
It’s interesting to see different opinions regarding the same picture. I prefer the original as it depicts a cold, dreary scene with low exposure. Also, I agree with @jamesstaddon on including the entire tree in the frame. The branches and twigs are well silhouetted against the white background. However, the branch closer to the centre of the frame appears to be clearer (sharper) than the other branches. Perhaps the focus was on that left branch.
This picture of a tree out in the snow shows a lot of negative space
This is an ideal picture for including text (such as a Bible verse) in the negative space.
Really nice clean photo, @zclark! Totally looks like something I’d see on a stock website.
Honestly, I like both versions – both darker and brighter. I think the underexposed version gives more of the dark, subdued, cold feeling of a winter evening and the brighter edit tells a story of a tree on a winter day. Both look nice to me.
I guess how you expose the photo and how you edit it all depends on what story you’re trying to tell, what feeling you’re trying to convey and maybe what time of day it really was. 🙂
Welcome to the forums, @zclark!
At a significant risk of redundancy, that’s something you’ll find is frequently true with snow pictures. They’ll usually end up underexposed if you’re not careful. As a rule of thumb to avoid this, I often jack up my exposure compensation 2/3rds of a stop in-the-field, whenever I’m taking pictures of snow. It just saves doing a bunch of unnecessary editing afterwards. Keep an eye on your in-camera histogram as you go, previewing your pics on-camera.
And by the way, that composition, as @buddingphotographer and and @bennett-family both mentioned, is fabulous. All your framing elements tend to draw my eye into the picture, without being distracting, and make me wonder what text or design you’re going to put in the sky. Great job!
William Frazer
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