Snow shots are difficult to get right. Snow is one of the most reflective surfaces on earth. It reflects so much light that your camera's light meter begs for sunglasses. Your camera's light meter will try to persuade you that your shot is too bright and so suggests that you darken the image with fast shutter speeds or small F.Stops. When you oblige your images do not come out nicely because the white snow appears grayish. Secondly, snow images may turn out with a blue cast. Strange as it is, your camera may have a hard time to gauge white balance even though there is lots of white snow in the image. Here is a snow image we can talk about:

In this image I have left three parts as the camera wanted me to take the shot. Can you see the gray snow? Go to the right bottom edge of the image, now move up a bit to where the water starts. See that blotch of gray snow to the left. Follow the water to the left and you will see some more gray snow. Follow the water into the image and you will see more gray snow to the right. I left this on purpose to demonstrate the way the camera wanted the snow and how I wanted the snow. I don't like gray snow, I much prefer white snow; how about you?

          It is best to shoot RAW because you can just set your white balance when you develop your shot. To set the white balance of snow pictures is as easy as one click. You select custom white balance in your software and simply click on any snow. Voila, your white balance is now correct (your blue cast should be gone). Secondly, set your camera's exposure compensation to +1 stop (or if you shoot manual just overexpose by one stop). This will force your sensor not to put sunglasses on your image. Your image will be brighter now. However, we do need to be very careful not to blow the white. Always watch the histogram to insure that the right edge of the histogram does not make contact with the border. Also set your camera so that the "blinkies" warn you is your image is blown.

          Watch where you walk so that you do not introduce footsteps into your shot, unless you want them there. If there is water in the area, watch where you step because you might step right throw the snow and into freezing cold water. Step on rocks, tufts of grass, etc. When we work in cold temperatures your hands can get cold. Yet gloves can make it difficult to press your camera's buttons. There are gloves with tips that peel back or get thin gloves that allow more dexterity. If you use an aluminum tripod you have another problem; they get very cold to handle. A quick trip to a hardware store solves this problem by getting pipe insulators that you can put on your tripod. They are really cheap and work well with the added benefit of providing padding so that your tripod is comfortable to carry over your shoulder.

          Speaking of tripods and snow, push your tripod down into the snow until it makes contact with solid ground. Failure to do so will result in blurry images (at best) or a tripod toppling over and smashing to the ground (at worst). Dress warmly and be safe.