Winter light is low, blue and soft, and most days are grey. Two things matter more than which recipe you load: expose for the snow, and lock your white balance.

Expose for the snow

Your meter wants everything to be mid-grey, so a frame full of snow comes out grey and dull. Dial in +2/3 to +1⅓ on the exposure compensation dial and turn on the highlight warning. If the snow still blinks, pull back a third at a time.

A negative Highlight value (−1 or −2) gives bright snow a softer roll-off, so it keeps some texture instead of going flat white.

Lock the white balance

Auto white balance shifts from frame to frame, and snow in open shade under a blue sky goes cyan. Pick a fixed setting, Daylight or a Kelvin value, so a sequence matches. If you like the cold blue in the shadows, keep it. If you don't, a recipe with a warmer shift (more R, less B) pulls it back.

Dynamic range on bright days

DR200 and DR400 protect highlights, which helps with sun on snow. They raise the lowest ISO you can use: DR200 needs twice your camera's base ISO and DR400 needs four times. In bright snow that means a faster shutter speed or a smaller aperture.

Grey days

Flat light suits flatter looks. Eterna and Classic Chrome keep colour quiet without turning it muddy. When there's no colour worth keeping, go black and white: Acros with the red filter (Acros+R) darkens a pale sky so the shapes carry the picture.

Look after the camera

Cold drains batteries fast. Keep a spare in an inside pocket and swap them. When you come back indoors, leave the camera in a closed bag for an hour so condensation forms on the bag, not inside the lens.

Set it up before you go out

Gloves and menus don't mix. Save a snow look and a grey-day look to two custom slots at home, so on the hill it's one turn of a dial. How to save a recipe to C1–C7 walks through it, and white balance shift explained covers the warm-or-cold choice above.