We had fresh snow in the early hours. It was overcast when I went outside in the morning to capture some photos. I put some new equipment to a test:  a Lastolite white balance card to enable use the “custom white balance” option on the camera.  Also,  I also added a HOYA circular polarizing filter ontop of the UV filter at the end of my lens. Although the filter allowed more saturated color, overall, the results seemed dark.

The images, once loaded onto the computer and further into Photoshop, appeared to need tweaking.  In the series of photos, histograms were empty on the right hand-side, where the right triangle hangs out on the levels. This was confusing to me. That’s the area supposedly where things are on the light end of the spectrum. If I had too much white, the balance of the histograms should have been on that right-hand-side. So I trudge on,  trying to learn more about shooting subjects with white colors. What I recall reading is that too much white will ruin the highlights; making them look burned out and overexposed. Is my understanding correct? I suppose I could give a call to Herbie (http://www.ppa.com/findaphotographer/12003/Herb-Goldberg.php) since he is a master of B/W, and he may be able to set me strait.

In a few days we plan an adventure to White Sands National Park, where the sand is comprised of gypsum = pure white. I want my photos to have the color/white balance levels done well. I have read many professionals warnings that light metering in fields of white will pose a major challenge: one has to make manual compensations in stops and or exposure levels because of the light values range so drastically.

Practice, practice, practice.