Last week England was hit by a cracking few days of snow. Of course, everything completely ground to a halt, but for this toy photographer, it was a bit of a dream come true!

I rushed out into the garden and took as many photos as I could think of! We’re not likely to see snow again like this for another 5 years!

LEGO minifigure holding a camera in the snow

Toy photographer out and about in all weathers

All this snow photography got me thinking about exposure (camera exposure, not the freezing to death kind). When I’ve taken pictures in the snow in the past, they’ve always been a bit underwhelming. And I think that where I have been going wrong is not changing the exposure settings on my camera (I mean, sure you can always do this in post, but I really don’t like editing so much!)

So this time, armed with a little more camera knowledge, (thank you Henry Carroll) I tried some exposure experiments to see how it improved my photos and whether I could get rid of those grey undertones my snow photos have always come out with.

The photos below are all un-edited (except for a small crop) just so we get a feel for what exposure can do.

Example 1

First up, we have Olaf! Because who can resist a happy snowman!

The first photo I took, I left the exposure set to 0. The second, I boosted it to 2. This might be too bright for some people, but I love how Olaf pops out of the whiteness! No more grey!!

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Example 2

In my second example, I actually took a photo at three different exposure points. Set to 0, set to 1, and set to 2. Here, because there is more non-snowy background, I feel that setting it to 2 made it a much nicer photo (although getting it in focus also helped!)

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The change from 0 to 2, without any other editing, is really what makes me realise how important a tool exposure is in your photography toolkit. It’s not something I’ve ever really thought about before, never really touching that exposure button, leaving it set to 0 and just fixing issues in post-processing. However, to get that bright look for snow, without playing around with the settings later, making this quick change before taking the shot really makes the world of difference.


Since all the snow has now gone, I’m just left with over 400 photos taken in 3 days to sort through! At least I won’t have to play with the exposure settings on them anymore! Did you get any snow? I know James did last week! Make sure you check out that post too! Us toy photographers do seem to love it when it snows! If you did take any snowy toy photos, why not share a link to them in the comments? We’d love to see how you got on!

  • Lizzi

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