Early Morning Snow

[JohnC]

Saw the snow at 4.30 am and decided to go for it ! In the first photo there's a  fox to the left side  by the first house.. I didn't see it as I took the photo.

[JohnC]

I'm not too impressed with my border colour in the first one so I've cropped it out and replaced it with one that doesn't look so stark. I think it looks better.

[jgs001]

Lovely shots John of that nearly pristine snow, well caught on the fox too.

[brianb]

Must say I like #3 best - at least the snow is a natural colour (if just a tad overexposed) - the sodium sky glow is still hideous though.

No snow here, just a bit of overnight rain. Sky now clearing!

[JohnC]

Glad you liked them.,thanks. I tried several shots before being reasonably satisfied with what was on the LCD. The better ones , I refrain from using the word best with all this orange around,  were taken on f11 with bulb and 5-8 seconds 100 ISO and pattern focusing. The garden shot was the easiest because I had the 500 watt garden light on. Using bulb was, somehow, easier than selecting different speeds   although,of course it's the same. I just counted in '1000's  from  shooting at 3 until I got it to a reasonable exposure.

Brian.. Later on I'll see if I can get that sodium sky black. I don't think taking photos in orange sodium lighting is the best environment. I''ll come back with something this afternoon. I'll let you know if I'm not able to succeed ,though. I don't like leaving photos like this if there is any chance atall of rectifying something like that sky and  it will be a good exercise for me.  I just took it that this is what you get with sodium lighting but as you say it's hideous, awful ,whatever. I may have to dip into PS (CS2) ,depends on the new Grad filter  tool in Lightroom 2.

[jgs001]

John, using LR it's worth trying to tweak the White Balance, see what happens to the snow...

[brianb]

it's worth trying to tweak the White Balance, see what happens to the snow...

You can't balance sodium light properly because it's pretty close to monochromatic.

Best effort is probably to block most of it, this can be done without affecting much else using a B+W 491 "Redhancer" (didymium glass) filter.

[JohnC]

I don't have one of those filters, Brian. I won't be taking many photos in sodium lighting so here's what Lightroom has done.

[rjgjr]

Great shots John, so peaceful and quiet looking. Good job!

[brianb]

I won't be taking many photos in sodium lighting

Since the lighting is monochrome anyway, why not convert to grey scale? Looks better that way to me....

[martinastro]

Great shots John! it's always difficult to get a good snow capture under artifical lights. They do all look very peaceful. I was looking at the radar last night and I was thinking at the time that you could be getting snow...glad you got the images! 

[JohnC]

I won't be taking many photos in sodium lighting

Since the lighting is monochrome anyway, why not convert to grey scale? Looks better that way to me....

I wondered about that and should have tried it but I thought the lighting gave it a warmth.

Here's monochrome.

[martinastro]

I quite like the grey scale version...although it is more haunting! 

[Roman White]

Wow! John, the last image looks stunning in monochrome! Maybe it is because the orange sky glow isn't visible (I hate it), but anyway the result is very nice. 

I'm glad of my winter. Snow stays on the ground since Dec.22, and it even didn't melt for a bit!
Today an arctic air mass occupied Ukraine. Last night we had -20C in Poltava and down to -25C in the countryside.
When I woke up this morning I saw an amazing blue skies and hoar frost on the trees. It was so nice!

Now, at noon, there is -12C even despite the Sun is shining
It will be the best winter days, especially if the next night will be completely clear! 

[rjgjr]

I have to say I really like the greyscale photo, it reminds me of a scene from an old 40's or 50's movie, but the the detail is incredible.