Taking Pictures on a Gray Snow Day

Hello, folks, we're starting with something of a taboo in photography: taking pictures on a gray, snowy day. I, personally, love the view outside when there is a lazy snowstorm raging and the earth is covered in the white stuff. I long to capture that beauty through my lens to share with the world, or just to remember during the hot summer months.
Most photographers, however, will tell you to just shelf your equipment and enjoy a cup of hot cocoa as you stare at sizzling logs and doze off dreaming of days when the sun will bring its saving light, and you basking and snapping away, grateful for its return. It is true that overcast skies are not good for photography, but I believe we can still take some decent pictures without use of the expensive gear.
So, here's what I will be sharing with you. I will list the lens I used and the camera settings for each picture. For the benefit of encouraging you folks who can, I will be taking all the photographs in RAW, though I will only be doing minor touch-up on them. Many good photographs have told me to focus on using the camera to capture the shot correctly rather than focusing on post editing...I agree with them. This lets you really focus on getting to know your camera and settings and your gear's limitations.
Without further ado, here we go.

As I exited my front door, here's what greeted me. A scene out of a midwinter's snow scene.

 

 Canon 500D (Rebel T1i) EF-S 18-55mm IS @ 55mm 1/100s F/20 ISO 200

I loved the scene - the snow was falling lightly and sticking to branches and twigs giving the woods an inviting white haze. If you enlarge it, you will see that it's hazy and not as charming as my eyes perceived it. This is what turns away many photographers from work on such dreary days. This, however, is why I love working with RAW. 

When I shoot RAW, I upload through the Canon Utility software and edit in Adobe Camera Raw through Photoshop CS4. 

Now, what I did with the picture is increase the exposure to +0.95 to brighten the dark areas, pushed the recovery all the way to 100, contrast to 59, and clarity to 38. Then I selected the Adjustment Brush and left everything as is except for sharpening which I turned to 100. 

The end result was something closer to what I wanted to share with the world.

You can see the halo of whiteness around the trees that makes the picture more charming. Could more be done? Yes, but I don't want to do too much editing and it's still good enough for now.

As far as camera settings, there's really no magic setting where whatever you shoot will come out right. Most of the time when I shoot landscape, I always want a small aperture (at least 20...most of the time 22). Aperture is the F-number and it is how much light your lens let in. A larger aperture is the number closer to zero and a small aperture is a higher number. If you want to blur out the background (background is out of focus), set the aperture to a very low number. If you want the background to be in focus, set the number higher. In this instance, I wanted to capture the objects further away as well as the closer ones, so I use a low aperture.
Because of the reflected brightness, I also used a faster shutter speed. This also aided and blanking out the snow flakes that were falling, although these were few and small.
Well, go out there, set your settings according to the scene before you, and capture the world through your viewfinder.

P.S. Low light situations are great for black and white photography...try it.

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