Photographing wildlife in snowy landscapes is both challenging and rewarding. The stark beauty of snow provides stunning contrast and drama, but it also wreaks havoc on your camera’s exposure settings. Without the right approach, your photos of majestic animals in winter may turn out too dark, too bright, or lacking detail.

Here’s how to master exposure for wildlife photography in the snow, ensuring your images do justice to both the creatures and their frosty environment.

Why Snow Confuses Your Camera

Your camera’s metering system is designed to measure the light in a scene and decide how bright or dark the image should be. To do this, the camera tries to average all the tones it sees—lights, darks, and midtones—and balance them to a standard gray tone known as "18% gray." This gray is a middle-of-the-road brightness that works well in most environments, but snowy scenes are an exception.

In snowy environments, the majority of the scene is very bright and reflective. Your camera's metering system doesn’t recognize that this brightness is normal—it assumes the scene is overexposed and tries to "correct" it. To do this, the camera reduces the overall brightness in the image, darkening the snow until it looks closer to the gray tone it expects.

The Result: This adjustment makes the snow look dull, gray, and lifeless. As a side effect, wildlife subjects in the frame, especially those with darker tones, may lose important details or be lost in the underexposure.

Your camera is essentially trying to “play it safe” by bringing the brightness down, but in doing so, it misunderstands the situation. Snow scenes are supposed to be bright—snow is white, not gray—but the camera doesn’t know this on its own. It treats every scene the same way, aiming for a neutral balance regardless of the actual conditions.

Since your camera doesn’t know that snow is meant to be bright, it’s up to you to tell it. This is where exposure compensation comes into play. By intentionally increasing the exposure (adding brightness), you can override the camera’s default behavior and restore the snow’s natural white appearance.

Use Exposure Compensation

Wildlife rarely stays still, so having quick and effective control over your exposure is critical. Exposure compensation is a simple and powerful tool that adjusts the camera’s metering to interpret bright snowy scenes correctly. Here’s how to use it effectively:

Start with +1 Stop: This is usually enough to correct underexposure in snow-covered environments. Take a test shot and check the results.
Fine-Tune Based on the Scene: If the snow is still gray, increase compensation to +1.5 or +2 stops. If the highlights start to blow out (areas where detail is lost due to overexposure), dial it back slightly.
Use Your Camera’s LCD and Histogram: After taking a shot, review it on your camera’s screen and check the histogram. Look for a curve that leans toward the right side without peaking, indicating well-exposed snow that retains detail.
Adapt to Lighting Changes: Bright sunlit snow and shaded snow require different adjustments. Be prepared to tweak your compensation as lighting conditions change throughout the day.

Spot Meter for Your Subject

If your wildlife subject is darker than the snowy background, use your camera’s spot metering mode. This ensures the exposure prioritizes the animal rather than the surrounding snow. Position your focal point over the animal, and your camera will adjust exposure accordingly.

Shoot in RAW

Snowy scenes often have high contrast, especially with wildlife that may be darker or heavily patterned. Shooting in RAW format gives you more latitude in post-processing to recover details in both the bright snow and the shadows of your subject. This is invaluable for balancing exposure later.

Adjust for Lighting Conditions

Snow can look vastly different depending on the time of day and weather conditions. On overcast days, the light is softer and more diffused, while bright, sunny days can create harsh shadows and glare. Adjust your exposure settings to match the conditions:

Overcast days: Increase your exposure slightly to prevent the snow from looking too gray.
Sunny days: Be mindful of blown highlights in the snow and use your histogram to ensure details are preserved.

Use a Polarizing Filter

A polarizing filter can reduce glare and enhance contrast in snowy scenes, especially on bright days. It can also help bring out subtle details in fur, feathers, or eyes that might otherwise be lost in reflected light.

Keep an Eye on Your Histogram

The histogram is your best friend in snowy environments. Aim for a curve that leans slightly to the right without peaking at the edge, which indicates overexposure. This ensures the snow stays white but retains detail, and your subject is properly illuminated.

Compose with Care

The combination of snow and wildlife offers dramatic opportunities for storytelling, but exposure can vary across your frame. Position your subject to maximize contrast against the snow, and use natural elements like trees or shadows to add depth and balance to your composition.

Post-Process Your Images for Impact

Post-processing can elevate your snowy wildlife photos from good to spectacular. Here are some tips for editing snow scenes effectively:

Adjust White Balance: Snow often reflects a blue tint, especially in shaded areas. Use your editing software to warm up the tones slightly for a more natural look.
Recover Highlights and Shadows: Bright snow and darker animals can create high contrast. Use sliders to recover details in overexposed snow and bring out texture in shadowy areas.
Boost Contrast: A touch of contrast can make the animal stand out against the snowy backdrop.
Enhance Colors Carefully: Avoid oversaturating colors, but a slight boost can make the animal’s fur or feathers pop against the neutral tones of the snow.
Sharpen the Details: Snow can make images look soft. Use sharpening tools to bring out the textures in your subject without overdoing it.
Crop Thoughtfully: If the animal is too small in the frame, crop in to focus attention on your subject while maintaining the snowy environment for context.

Practice Patience

Wildlife in snowy environments often blends into the background, making proper exposure and focus even more critical. Take your time, observe the light, and adjust your settings as needed. Every click of the shutter is a learning opportunity.

Snowy landscapes are more than just a backdrop for wildlife photography—they're part of the story. By mastering exposure techniques and applying thoughtful post-processing, you can capture breathtaking images of animals thriving in these icy environments. So grab your camera, bundle up, and venture into the winter wilderness for your next wildlife photography adventure!

Want to join a winter wildlife workshop? Akari Photo Tours leads them in various locations around the world. See those workshops here.

Capturing Wildlife in the Snow: How to Properly Expose Your Winter Wildlife Photos