With snow in the forecast in Montclair and Verona, NJ, it’s that time of year where photographs come out too dark! That’s becausethe auto-exposure on your camera is seeing nothing but the blinding white snow all around it and thinks that all that white is bright light. To compensate for this the camera thinks it needs to darken the image, but this leaves human faces too dark and the snow looking grey.

To get good exposure in the snow you have to “trick” your camera’s auto-function by using the “exposure compensation mode,”dialing it UP an f-stop or two. On a cell phone camera, you can trick the camera by simply locking your exposure on someones face or dark jacket (excluding the snow) and then re-framing it to get your desired composition.

Feel free to leave any questions in the comments!