In the course of our visit to Emerald Lake Lodge, I had the opportunity to do some snow-shoeing with friends, Gail and Paul. Our trek began at the Natural Bridge, a stone arch spanning a waterfall in the Kicking Horse River. Not much to see there, the waterfall was frozen over and covered with snow. The water continued to flow beneath the ice, exiting just downstream of the falls. Looking down river, I liked the view and took the following photograph.
Set-up:
Lens: 24-70 mm f2.8
f16, ISO 400, 1/50 sec., Focal length 25 mm
Tripod, no flash
White Balance: 6000 deg K *
* I don’t often cite this setting but in this instance it is the most important variable in capturing the light as it really looked. The white balance can be adjusted on the camera, prior to the shot but in this case, I used the “auto” white balance setting. The look of the image was very “cool”, with a bluish hue to it (5600 deg K). I “warmed” the view just a little by increasing the white balance setting to 6000 deg K, using Adobe Camera Raw software. The final image looks more like I viewed it, a more faithful recreation of the scene in my opinion. But, the choice of white balance is very much the photographer’s preference. There is no right or wrong. One could argue reasonably, that a “cooler” look fits a winter scene. Look at yesterday’s post “Our First Trip of 2014” for some examples of “cooler” scenes.