Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Landscape & Nature Photography => Topic started by: larkis on February 10, 2013, 10:48:20 pm
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I managed to roll out of bed for a sunrise this morning. Here are 3 snaps:
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I wouldn't mind waking up to scenes like those. Nice!
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I certainly don't want to disparage these fine shots...though I really do not like the cold and most especially anything involving the white stuff unless it is sand on a southern beach, but I seem to see this "oddity" in so many snow shots and wonder as to its "realness" or if it is just a chromatic abberation which not everyone "fixes?"
Why is there blue snow? I did a simple edit and made it white without, as to my tastes, losing any of the quality which attracted my eye in the first place. So, I guess not living in that area of the world where one has to dig themselves a path to the mailbox, does this blueness have something to do with the blue sky reflecting off what is essentially water, or is it camera incorrectness? I am honesty curious because I cannot look at blue snow scene and not be turned off by the blue.
This, of course also beings up a case for the differences in montior calibration.
(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8229/8463173711_6ffbd68a4e_o.jpg)
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Why is there blue snow? I did a simple edit and made it white without, as to my tastes, losing any of the quality which attracted my eye in the first place.
Hi Chris,
This has exercised me greatly over the last week. Your edit still has blue shadows (to my eye).
I spent a long time futzing with colour in my "States of snow" post. Note the variation within #1 in that series.
Snow is blue (just checked out the window), and cameras can increase it.
Apparently the painting world went through this debate a century or so ago.
Enjoy snow-free Florida! It's a mild -20 °C here today.
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What is sure, is that snow is almost never white ;) ;)
Even in the case where there is no sun, snow is a gray gradation.
But in most cases, it can be blue, green or orange.
Don't forget that our brain acts as an auto white balance !!
Enjoy colors ;)
Thierry
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Okay, I will give in to blue snow from now on. I wonder why our sand doesn't do the same thing and our sand here is as white as your snow there? -20 anyhting F or C doesn't sound remotely like you'd find me there...Brrrrrrr.
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Blue snow occurs whenever there is clear blue sky above the snow. It is unavoidable. Grey snow under a blue sky looks totally fake.
As Thierry says, "our brain acts as an auto white balance," so one ordinarily doesn't notice the blue shadows --- unless you consciously ask yourself "What color are the shadows" and you look closely.
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Chris,
Perhaps this can answer some of your questions.
http://luminous-landscape.com/essays/blue-icebergs.shtml (http://luminous-landscape.com/essays/blue-icebergs.shtml)
Rich
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Very nice! I will be in Ontario in a couple of weeks and am hoping to find some of the stark winter scenes that are so rare in North Carolina.
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Chris,
Perhaps this can answer some of your questions.
http://luminous-landscape.com/essays/blue-icebergs.shtml (http://luminous-landscape.com/essays/blue-icebergs.shtml)
Rich
Thanks. I knew about the ice condition and blue but did not realize it carried over to snow as well...good, I've always made it a point to learn something new every day and this makes the rest of the day easier.
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I wonder why our sand doesn't do the same thing and our sand here is as white as your snow there?
As some of the comments have noted: it isn't that snow appears blue; it's that snow in shadows appears blue.
Make some shadows on your white sand and then take another look ;-)
(For "our brain acts as an auto white balance" Google color constancy.)
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I managed to roll out of bed for a sunrise this morning.
Worth it for the second one alone.
Jeremy
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Thanks for the comments. Yes the light was very purple and pink so the shadows pretty much went there as well. I actually had to desaturate a little bit because the colours were so vivid that the image looked like I have boosted the saturation.
There is another shot of the barn, which one of the two do you guys prefer ?
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I prefer the first one. I like the space around the barn. 2nd one feels a bit cramped to me.
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Snow shadows are blue-tinged when the sky is blue. Just reflection. On a gray-sky day, shadows will be gray.
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Snow shadows are blue-tinged when the sky is blue. Just reflection. On a gray-sky day, shadows will be gray.
When the sky is blue, why does snow not-in-shadow not appear blue-tinged?
Is the reflection from snow not-in-shadow more blue or less blue than from snow in-shadow, and why?
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I saw with my eyes how much the snow in the holes made by the trekking poles can be deeply blue, when all around seems white.
The snow can be blue, pink, red, violet... and so on.
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Have been accused of Photoshop Hooliganism, in those very words, for the blue snow in a couple of my shots. I so often suffer for my art.
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Pobrecito
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I prefer the first one. I like the space around the barn. 2nd one feels a bit cramped to me.
My opinion too.
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When the sky is blue, why does snow not-in-shadow not appear blue-tinged?
Is the reflection from snow not-in-shadow more blue or less blue than from snow in-shadow, and why?
When the sky is blue, the non-shadow snow is being lit directly from the sun, which isn't blue. The shadows are not in direct sunlight, so they are in fact being lit by the blue sky. Very simple.
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When the sky is blue, the non-shadow snow is being lit directly from the sun, which isn't blue. The shadows are not in direct sunlight, so they are in fact being lit by the blue sky. Very simple.
Yes, the non-shadow snow is lit by "white" light directly from the sun.
The shadows by definition are not lit by direct light, the light that reaches the shadows is light that's been scattered in all directions in the atmosphere, and blue light is scattered more (http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/blue-sky/) than other wavelengths.
Perhaps we should say that, we see the shadow snow as blue-ish for the same reason we see the sky as blue.
Now for the interesting questions:
- do we see the shadow snow as blue-ish on cloudy days?
- if not, is that because the clouds scatter and re-scatter light so much that the different wavelengths are mixed again, more white less blue?
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Love the old house. Not sure I'd venture out into that cold stuff to get the shot but since I haven't seen a snow flake this year I can sit back and enjoy your shots instead!
And there is blue snow because it's white and reflecting a blue sky. If the snow where blue, it would be white under the blue sky.. Seems right to me.. (-:}..
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The original has correct color. If you are out with a rising or setting sun and blue sky, snow shadows appear purple-blue. If you think otherwise it is your imagination. You have to be there. As stated above, if it is overcast the shadows appear grey.
This shot has reduced purple in the snow from what it is really like. I reduced it only due to people thinking there is a magenta cast.
(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8085/8468926115_870b45d4d4_o.jpg)
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Beautiful! I adore them all, but especially #2.