Working with snow and water.

Are you worried about water on / in your dolls?

In general, as long as you're not getting them submerged to the point where there strings are getting wet it should be fine. Is this more of a care question or a question about photography in the snow?

 

I would think any general tutorial about snow photography would be helpful. The snow acts as a big reflector, so that helps with light. The main thing is getting the snow to look white - the camera will try to average the whole scene to gray so it can come out looking pretty drab, especially when it's cloudy out. I personally would overexpose a little to whiten up the snow, shoot raw so I can tweak white balance in case the camera gets it wrong (it might be too blue), and probably use spot metering on the doll's face (assuming that's what I'm focusing on in the scene).

Please keep in mind we get maybe one snow a year here, and I'm a wuss about the cold so usually wait until the sun's out to take photos! But those tips are what I remember from a tutorial I read recently, and what I plan to do if we do get snow here this year. And the slightly-overexposing worked pretty well shooting photos at a hockey game... white ice, white snow... similar enough?

 

I'd agree with pretty much everything AmyAngel has said, and we DO get a lot of snow where I live! It might sound weird to 'over-expose' a photo when the snow is already so white and bright, but this will actually improve the white look of the snow in the image. What you're really doing by over-exposing, however, is exposing specifically for your darker subject, because chances are good that every subject is going to be darker than the pure white show.

Most cameras have "exposure compensation" settings on them as well. I usually adjust between +0.3 to +1.0 exposure compensation, but you may want to overexpose more, depending on the ambient light. You may also want to 'over-expose' the shot by opening up your aperture, which will allow more light to reach the camera's sensor. Lower aperture number (f-stop) means a wider aperture. This may not always be practical or possible, because of course a wider aperture means a shallower depth-of-field and you might not want that. A slower shutter speed will also allow more light into your camera's sensor for greater exposure.

Center-weighted metering and Spot metering can also really help when shooting darker subjects against a background of snow. Spot metering is awesome if you've got a subject that contrasts quite a lot with the background, because you can use it to meter the light in a specific "spot" (i.e. the face of your subject) and avoids the problem of your camera's light meter being confused by all that bright white snow. Center-weighted metering works well for when there's fairly even lighting and even brightness throughout the whole shot.

If you don't have Spot metering or center-weighted metering, another trick that can help is to focus on a darker object first, before taking your shot. Lock your exposure, and then move back to your subject.

If your camera has a histogram, it is your friend. You can use it to adjust exposure so you don't get shots that are too dark or greyish, or so you don't get crazy blown-out highlights (which can happen very easily with snow). The histogram can tell you, among other things, whether or not you should use exposure correction for your next shot. This is a great site to learn about histogram.

Lens shades. They are your friend on snow days, too. I really can't stress that enough, because all that lovely reflective snow is more likely to cause lens flare or hazy-looking images. Your results will most likely be better on an overcast day than they will on a sunny day as well. Also, outside on a snow day is not a good time to use flash, even if it's a grey sky kind of day.

 

For snow, shooting RAW is your friend. Even with metering and exposure adjustments, things happen - at least they do to me.

 

For ALL shooting, RAW is your friend xD

But I can echo what's been said in this thread already about camera metering. Cameras do try to "average" the scene and make everything grey. Bright whites like snow cause the camera to pull that average down if you're shooting in any automatic modes so it's best to up your exposure. In addition to opening your aperture, you may prefer to raise your ISO, or lower the shutter speed. Both of these will also have the same effect of changing the overall exposure, but will not affect your depth of field. (Slower shutter speed can lead to camera shake if too slow, and higher ISO can lead to noise in your image if too high, but if changing your aperture affects the story then you'll have to resort to something else).

If you're in an automatic or semi-automatic mode, you'll be best off just using exposure compensation which will let the camera change either of these for you.

Depending on the situation, I wouldn't necessarily forego using flash or other lighting, especially if you can get it off of the camera. The fact that snow acts as a reflector will actually soften the shadows underneath a subject due to the reflection of light off of the snow surface, so if you have the option of an off camera light and can get it slightly above your doll and pointed down, definitely give it a shot. If you have a point and shoot with a small built in flash it may be harder to make it flattering but that's true of all situations. The best lights are ones you can move around and I would say that additional lights can enhance a photo in most situations.

The thing you will have to worry about with external lighting though is the power. If you want to backlight your doll using the sun, an external light is helpful to fill the doll in, but on a more overcast day it may provide too much light to keep your snow white without post-processing. This is where avoiding it could be the best option.