Figure 1 – Snow covered treetops illuminated at sunset, Sudbury, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2016.

The decisive light that I spoke about yesterday illuminated the tree tops against a dark, looming, almost night-like sky. The second image from this short but gorgeous moment is shown in Figure 1.  What really appeals to me, beyond the drama, is the dynamic range – that is how the eye pulls out the features of the trees and snow in shadow. It is unusual for snow photographs to have a golden tone. The blue tone of Rayleigh scattering is much more common.  And in this context it is unusual to compensate down in exposure, so as not to saturate, as opposed to up in exposure to drive the dynamic range towards saturation.

Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens at 70 mm , ISO 800, Aperture priority AE mode, 1/1600 th sec at f/7.1 with -1 exposure compensation.