What does my digital camera's "snow mode" do?

What does my digital camera's "snow mode" do?

Mark Comon (Vice President, Paul's Photo, Torrance, CA) gives expert video advice on: What does my digital camera's "landscape mode" do?; What does my digital camera's "night mode" do?; What does my digital camera's "kids and pets" mode do? and more...

The "snow mode," or "sand and snow mode" on some cameras is used when you're shooting against a bright background, like at the beach or on the snow. What the camera does in snow mode is to tell the camera to look at the subject, rather than the background, for determining exposure. If you don't do that, quite often your background will be normal and your subject will be too dark because of the bright background. This is where snow mode is useful.