Of course, Courtney,
That's my Christmas avatar. I'll leave it up 'till New Years or until I get a good shot of a festive squirrel.

Rusty

Now that is a fine festive squirrel! Much better.

Courtney

PS - For the color modes, Ken Rockwell says
Mode Ia (sRGB) the default, normal and boring
Mode II (Adobe RGB) dull colors, don't use unless you really know what you are doing and print your own work
Mode IIIa (sRGB), bolder colors [because of his bias for vivid, bold colors ... his choice]

Might be interesting to try out the Mode IIIa and have vivid, bold colors and at the same time increase the contrast and have the enhanced saturation set. Put a misted filter in front (or blur a little in Photoshop) and you've got a great abstract setup.
Almost endless possibilities

Geoff,
This could be simulated after the shot in ACR with the latest camera profiles. Anyone to submit a raw (NEF) landscape to test this idea?

These pictures are great Rusty.
I learn/understand better seeing the photos with examples rather than reading it without the photos. Looking outside right now, I think were in for a very snowy winter, so this is very helpful information for me.

Thank you Rusty

Greetings from Alaska, where it is cold, dark, and snow-covered at the moment. I hope to get out during the brief period of daylight today (~6 hours) and try to take a few snow scenes. I have my pocket camera with me (Canon SD850is), and it has a Scene mode called Snow. I'll have to see how that does and what it does. The manual says it removes the bluish tinge and makes people appear less dark against a snowy background, so I suppose it's doing exposure compensation like Rusty suggested plus adjusting the white balance. Maybe I'll be able to try a photo or two using the Snow mode and normal mode by way of comparison.

On the other hand the temperature is about 5 degrees F, so I may wimp out....

Ohhhhhhhhh, 5 degrees, yuck. I would be buried under a blanket!! Have a great trip up there, Chuck

Chuck,
You have no idea how jealous I am that your in Alaska. Ive always wanted to visit there.
My husband was going to get us tickets for the cruise, but I had to cancel because I have a horrible fear of being in the ocean.
It looks breathtaking!!!!!!!!!!
Enjoy, take a ton of pictures & above all have fun & stay warm!

Well....it warmed up since this morning....now it's 6 degrees F.

Not a good day for snow pictures - gray sky, so no shadows to play with. I tried a couple photos of a little snow-covered evergreen just to see what Snow setting would do vs. normal mode. Bottom line: about 1.5 x exposure, a little more than Rusty's rule of thumb. I don't think it did anything with the color temperature, although I may run the photos through ACR to see. No blue tint to battle today, because (I presume) no blue sky to create the tint.

Maybe tomorrow the sun will come out....while I'm working all day....

Upon further review....the photo taken in normal mode had a bluish cast (e.g., RGB of 173-183-189). On the other hand, in Snow Scene mode, every spot sampled in the snow was exactly balanced (e.g., 228-228-228). By golly, I think that Scene mode actually works!

I'm surprised you aren't using your new G10, Chuck,
What... did you leave it home 'cause you didn't want it to get cold?

Rusty

PS - I just looked at my (now elderly) Nikon Coolpix. Within the "Scene Mode" (idiot wheel) there is a menu setting for "Beach/Snow". I'll have to play and see what happens.