I am forewarning you, that is a long response and you must have a good grasp of your camera before attempting to shoot in the snow, but here is my response...
----- So here is my process for metering in bright environments *when taking portraits*.
Go into your camera menu and or the shortcut command button located somewhere on your camera body (depnding on the make and model) and there should be funtion to change your metering. There are, I believe, three settings. Matrix (or evaluative) metering. This takes a reading from the overall scene and tells you what the best combination of shutter/aperature are. Then there is center weighted, which takes the majority of the reading from the center, but then also reads from about 30 percent of the rest of the scene. Lastly there is spot metering. This takes it's reading from the center of the viewfinder area (basically where your center focus point is in your viewfinder). This is the setting I suggest for portraits in bright environments.
Now you don't have to be restricted to manual mode to use this method. In manual, basically all your going to do is look through the viewfinder while pointing that center point right at the skin on your subjects face and then dial your settings until get the meter to sit in the center (all those bars at the bottom of your viewfinder.
On the left, I left the lens cap on so that the scene was completley black, and it's telling me that my settings are f1.4 and shutter speed of 1/125sec... on the right, set to spot meter I have pointed it directly at my computer screen (it was not nearly as white, that's the iPhone not being able to handle the contrast)... It's telling me that f1.4 and a shutter speed of 1/500sec I am exactly where I need to be in order to produce "neutral gray" for that little area it's surverying. When I say neutral gray, cameras don't meter for pure white or pure black, so in order to get pure white or pure black, (like photographing a black car) you would need to over or under expose. This is just a matter of adjusting your settings until that little meter goes left or right.
Now if you want to shoot in Aperature priority, you can omit some of these steps. In Ap or AV depending on your Cam manufacturer, you will not see the meter at the bottom of the screen. It's not there, because the camera is adjusting your shutter speed to sit exactly at center of the meter according the aperture you've selected. If you want to over or under expose your photo, you use the "exposure compensation" dial or buttons. You can then set the compensation to a little higher if you want to blow out the whites or set it a little lower if you want to make the scene a little darker.
I suggest for the creamy skin tones, that you'll want to overexpose by a 1/3 to a half of an fstop. But it totally depends on the situation and environment and will take a little experimenting. My suggestion is to interact with your subjects and start taking a few shots to nail down your exposure. While your looking at the Histogram/LCD talk with your subjects and make them feel a part of the process. There is nothing worse than a photographer staring blankly at their camera controls and not saying a word.
Also keep in mind, if your using a priority mode, whether it be Aperture or Shutter priority, every time you move that little meter point to somewhere else in the scene, it's going to adjust accordingly. To combat this, you need to point your center point of the meter at your subject, and at the point your going to focus on... So in other words, point at the eye of your subject, then press down on the button that reads, "AE-L/AF-L" ... This means Auto Exposure/Auto Focus Lock. This will lock in those settings, and now anywhere you point that camera your exposure (in the priortiy mode) is going to be locked in. I only suggest using it when you are slightly re-composing your shot. So in essence, point at the eye, press the AE/AF-L and then (while staying in the same focal plane - don't move back or forth, just up down & side to side) arrange your composition... Where you want the subject to be in the frame. Doing this, will lock the exposure to where you metered from, and keep the eye in the focal plane of the lens which is what you are aiming to have in focus.
As far as off Camera flash, if you don't have a light stand to get your light nice and high, or a softbox/umbrella, you will need to be super careful about how your postion your light as to not create to harsh of shadows. But, using an off camera flash, actually allows you the opportunity to make your background/foreground ambient light dimmer. When using off camera flash, your shutter speed controls the ambient light and your aperture controls the light how bright the light from the flash looks in the final exposure.
Your shutter speed is how long you leave the shutter open (as I'm sure you already know) so when you have that cranked down, you are allowing less light by shortening the period of time it can hit the sensor.
Aperature (which controls the size of the opening inside the lens) controls how much light actually passes through the lens. Since a speedlight usually completes it's burst of light as fast as 1/200 of a second, the shutter only needs to be open for that amount of time... The light is so fast that it's going to enter no matter what. If you close down your aperture (make the number bigger) you are allowing less of that light to by-pass the lens to the sensor.
So then in a situation like being in the snow, you could actually shorten your shutter speed to make the snow and the background darker, but use your aperture to light your subject with a flash to a more appealing exposure (i.e natural skin tones).
This process can be a little tricky if you haven't done it before and I don't suggest it, if it would be your first or second time. Experiment on family or friends until your comfortable setting it up.
Other than that, snow can be a beautiful reflector of large soft light on your subjects faces. So my BEST suggestion is to find a shadow very close to brighter location. Utiilize the light from the sun, being reflected from the snow onto your subjects (who are in the shade) to create very soft portraits. I also suggest mixing up lots of full frame portraits with lots of environmental shots. That way, if all your environmental type portraits look like garbage, you full frame portraits should be fine, as your only exposing for their skin and no other ambient variables. Also don't be afraid to do some indoor shots during the session. Find some large windows as your light source and position your subject so that they are facing the light source at about a 45 deg angle and shoot away. You will get beautifully large catchlights in the eyes and nice soft light that wraps around them. The larger the window the softer the light.
I know it's cliche to say, but most of all have fun! If your worried the whole time about your settings, and your fumbling with your camera, you will inevitably carry those emotions right into your subject and you will not get nice comfortable, relaxed portraits. Remember, if you totally don't get anything that looks good, you've got two options. Provide the client with a free make - up session (just explain to them that the conditions were not ideal and your standards are too high to deliver the photos you have. Tell them you would rather make it up by doing a re-shoot and providing them with the absolute best you can offer). Or you can convert to black and white... that's just a joke.. Although it will work in some cases, but your way better off not having to "sacrifice" to give them good photos.
My last piece of advice... Shoot in RAW... and expose further to the right (meaning your better off exposing a little bright than too dark). Shadows hold little to no information in the file, while even whites that are close to clipping, have a lot more information that can be used to reduce the exposure. Although, if you blow out a highlight (clipping) there is no information to recover and it will just become pukey gray if you try to darken it too much.
I know this was a very long response, and my fingers are now numb, but I hope this gives you a lot more comfort while you prepare for your weekend shoot. Please let me know how it goes!
Trevor D. Rideout
Trevor Dean Photography -----------
Happy Shooting!
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