White, white, white – everything is white. White Christmas is past, but you still have white backgrounds for outdoor portrait photographs, white foregrounds for winter action photographs and white everywhere for winter scenic photographs. The hills are alive with an abundance of white.

Do you think all that white stuff has any impact on your camera’s ability to make properly exposed pictures? You better believe it. Think about the reflection of light off of snow for a moment. About the only natural thing on earth that reflects more light is the surface of a pond when the sun hits it at the right angle.

Contrary to what some camera manufacturers might have you believe, you cannot totally trust camera meters when the camera’s viewfinder looks at that much light. That’s especially true for the center area of the viewfinder because that’s where most people place the subject in their photographs, and so that’s where camera manufacturers “center of weight” the meter’s ability to detect light.

Can you see how all of that light overpowers the camera’s meter? The meter thinks that whatever you want to photograph has so much light reflecting off of it that the film only needs a narrow shot at it. And so the camera selects a very fast shutter speed or a very small lens opening – also called an F stop – or a combination of both.

All that light also “blinds” the meter to seeing the much lesser amount of light reflected by your subject, say a person standing in the snow. And so the meter selects an exposure that can’t possibly show detail in the person’s face. Many such pictures show only a dark silhouette of the person. The same thing happens with winter scenery photographs. The trees and such often come out pure black. Do we hear a chorus of ah-hahs out there now?

And what if you’re aiming for a picture of a totally snow-covered scene? The meter must do that right? Wrong. The meter was set to select exposure settings for an “average” scene, the ones that reflect an average amount of light. Most folks take pictures of mostly average scenes most of the time. So your meter selects for an average scene and picks an exposure that makes your snow look dingy and gray.

But what about the new matrix metering and other sophisticated systems? Don’t they take all of this into account? Sorry. Even the most modern metering systems have difficulty setting proper exposures for lots of snow.

So what do you do? Put your camera away until the snow melts? Head south for the winter? While the last choice might appeal to some, I just know all readers of this column enjoy the outdoors in Maine in all seasons so much that they think it’s better to learn how to deal with photographing the snow instead. Well, maybe a week in Florida would be OK. But guess what happens when you photograph your significant other on that sandy white beach?

So how do you get a proper exposure? It’s easier to show you with an example: Picture a black Labrador retriever in a snowbank. The black Lab reflects minimal light, while the snow reflects all of it. If you meter the dog to set your exposure the snow will be horribly overexposed. If you meter the snow the dog becomes a lump of coal in the photograph. And you thought it was your processor’s fault, didn’t you?

Your meter simply cannot deal well with either situation. So look for something that reflects an average amount of light and meter that to set your exposure for a subject in the same light. Read that again: Look for something that reflects an average amount of light and meter that to set your exposure for a subject for a subject in the same light.

What’s average? Middle-toned green grass reflects an average amount of light. Since that’s hard to find in winter I always carry a gray card, available through many camera stores, to keep a reference point available. Hold the card evenly in the same light as your subject and meter from it.

The average blue sky directly opposite the sun works well too. Then there’s average gray clothing, average gray rocks, average yellow grasses in wetlands and along roadsides, average gray bark on some trees – the list goes on and on. Meter average things, not the real light or the real dark stuff. Base your exposure settings on that and adjust if need be to allow a bit more light to photograph an all black dog or a bit less light for your basic snow scene. There’s certainly plenty of snow to practice on this year. So get out there and go for it and you should see a remarkable improvement in the results of your photography.