Week Six - Tips For Better Photos

Wow! What a hectic week last week was. I am sorry that I didn't have time to post the sixth installment of weekly photo tips. But I am back and ready with the next tip! 

This week I am going to go over White Balance with you guys. HUH? Yep, White Balance. It is one of those buttons or dials on your camera that you were suppose to read about from lesson one. Oh Yeah, I remember now...Tip #1~Read Your Manual!!! Well, now I am going to talk about one of those things that you were supposed to have read about way back when. But don't worry, if you didn't read about it then, you can read about it now. 

So what is White Balance? It's like this, different light sources produce different color temperatures, and your camera's White Balance controls will help your camera to adjust or compensate for these temperatures so that they don't cause any unwanted Color Cast to your photo. Color Cast is the measure of the hue that is emitted by a each source of light. Most cameras have several different pre-settings for you to use to adjust the White Balance in accordance to the type of lighting condition you are shooting in. For example, most will have a pre-set for sunlight, shade, tungsten light and fluorescent lights as well as one for Automatic White Balance. And if you are lucky, your camera will also have one for Custom White Balance. Basically, these settings should make anything white in the photo come out white and not grey, yellow, pink or blue. 

For the most part your camera's Automatic White Balance setting will work fairly well. HOWEVER, just like everything else you have recently learned about your camera, automatic settings are not always correct, nor are they always the best setting to use! For example, if you are taking a photo in an area with mixed light sources, then your camera will become very confused and the outcome will be a really weird color cast to your photos. How would you be in mixed light sources, you ask? Well, if you ever use a flash you are adding a second light source to the current light source you are already in. Or if you are taking a photo inside near a window with sunlight coming in and there is a light on in the room - well that would also be mixed lighting conditions that can lead to those pesky weird color cast. 

So how do you correct those unwanted color cast? You change your camera's White Balance to match the condition you are in. In theory, this is supposed to work. But I can tell you from experience, with the exception of Automatic White Balance (AWB) I have found that the pre-sets my camera has, doesn't do a hill of beans for color casts. So my advice to you is to go out and practice in all kinds of lighting conditions, even mixed lighting conditions, and in each one take a photo using each of your camera's pre-sets to see what the outcome is. This is the only way you are going to learn how YOUR camera behaves in each type of light. I think that I have said this before, all camera brands behave a little differently in different lighting conditions. Some are a little bit more on the blue side when dealing with whites, and others are a little more on the magenta side. If you are one who pays attention to details, you will have already noticed what I am referring to in your own photos. 

Red Teddy and I went around today to take some photos in order to give you guys several examples on how the different pre-sets can act in different lighting conditions. 

These first examples were taken in filtered / reflected sunlight (bright sun - but under an overhang with sun reflecting from buildings and sidewalk).

 

These next examples were taken in the shade.

  

These examples were taken in full sun.

 

And these last set of examples were taken inside with a small amount of sunlight coming in the window and a table lamp on.

  

In all of the example sets, you can see how each type of lighting changes the colors in the photos. This is Color Cast. And you can you can also see how each setting differers in each type of lighting. Sometimes there is a strong blue color (like with the tungsten pre-set) other times there is a very subtle blue cast that you may or may not notice. Then there are times when the colors look more yellow or more red. The one thing you can see is that while the camera's Automatic White Balance does a fair job, it doesn't always work well. About the only consistant way to get a near perfect (if not perfect) white balance is by doing a Custom White Balance, which you can see I have done in each senario. Most cameras have this feature as well. 

So how do you Custom White Balance? Each camera is different in how to do this. You need to READ YOUR MANUAL in order to figure out how to do this for your camera. But in a nutshell, you will turn on your custom white balance setting and take a close up photo of something solid white in the lighting condition you are currently in, then save it as a custom setting. So every time you change lighting situations, you need to reset your custome white balance. If anyone has any questions on any of these tips, feel free to contact me. 

Hava a great day. And happy shooting!

Comments

[Christine]

Did passersby wonder why you were taking so many pictures of a red teddy bear?!? :-)

[Me & the Red Teddy!]

We did get a few odd looks! But I didn't have anyone with me that could be my model. Besides, Red Teddy works pretty cheaply!!