3 Quarters Today

My Life, my photography, my passions

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Correcting White Balance in Snow Photography

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Winter in Nebraska can be fickle. We can have a season of blizzards, or just a couple of big snow storms that dump 8-12 inches a few times during the season. This year we have had no big snow storms, just a slight dusting at Christmas time, enough to say we had a white Christmas and nothing more.

The news is full of winter storm watches, bitter cold and above average snow falls from Chicago to New England, but nothing in Nebraska. So I’ve gone back into my archive photography files to get a taste of a snowy winter. The year is 2012 and in February we had a really nice, slow snowfall that coated everything. I went out with a camera I just got for Christmas, my oldest Marine son gave me his Canon Rebel before he deployed, and took photo after photo of the amazing scenery.

I have since started shooting in RAW and editing in Lightroom, so I thought I would rework a photo to see how I can improve on it now.

Winter snow on the plow
1. Before SOOC
Snow on the plow
2. After: crop, white balance, edited in Lightroom
Lightroom photo edit: snow on the plow
Click on image to see Lightroom details in editing.

First I cropped the original to a 5×7 and zoomed in a little closer. Then set the white balance in Lightroom by using the eyedropper on the snow, this eliminated the greenish cast. I also increased the highlights, clarity and contrast to give more texture. Below is horizontal crop version where I applied noise reduction. Since this image was originally a JPG shot at 400 ISO I thought it could use some smoothing out.

Which do you like the best, 1,2 or 3?

Winter farm storage
3. Horizontal crop with Lightroom noise reduction

Related Lightroom articles

#19/52: Buffalo on the Prairie

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Buffalo on the Nebraska Prairie
Buffalo on the Nebraska Prairie (SOOC)

A lone buffalo stands guard between Omaha and Lincoln Nebraska at the Lee Simmons Wildlife park. While he may not be wild, or even real, the buffalo inside the park are real. It is ironic this buffalo stands next to a fence, which to me symbolizes how barbed wire and man civilized the prairie to the point where the only buffalo can only be seen in captivity.

The above shot is straight out of camera shot, a little over exposed. When I adjusted the exposure the scene was just too contrasted for the texture of the bronze buffalo. So I turned him to black and white in Lightroom 4.  This is a reach for me as I LOVE the blue of the sky and high contrast.

I adjusted the clarity in the clouds and reduced the shadows in the grass.

Buffalo in Nebraska
Buffalo in Nebraska

What version do you like best?

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Day 91/365: Zebra Stripes

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Day 91: Zebra Clutch wallet at Coop de Ville

Yes, I bought it. I guess every three years I need a new wallet. I’m drawn to classic style with a bit of flair. Black and white will go with everything, any color purse, and I can carry it by itself. Ok, you can’t see the whole wallet, but just the fabric the watch is sitting on, but trust me it’s a soft faux suede with leather like corners and silver buttons. I LOVE how it feels.

The watch I liked too, but today it just had to be an accent piece in my photograph. This is a teaser for the Coop de Ville series of pictures which will come later, don’t forget to subscribe at the bottom of the page to an email update, or click on the WordPress link at the top (if you’re signed in of course) There’s also the RSS feed, if that’s what you prefer.

Photoshop notes: I cropped and straightened the photo slightly, then added the standard layer actions/ My Finepix S1500 camera does a poor job in artificial light, I should try using the white balance more often or the lighting option and see if that improves things, but I often forget when I ‘m in a hurry. So I adjusted the color (decreased the yellow and green), desaturated and sharpened the embellishments. The original SOOC (straight out of camera) is below.

SOOC for comparision