Photography for Newbies - Week One

Are you ready to play with your camera with me? For this tutorial, you do need to be able to change the white balance manually on your camera.

We're going to play around with white balance this week. White balance is the color balance on a camera.

A correct white balance will make sure that the white in person is displayed as white in your photos.

From .
Cambridge in Color Website

Read ahead on that site if you are interested in reading more...there is some great information there.

"Proper camera white balance has to take into account the "color temperature" of a light source, which refers to the relative warmth or coolness of white light. Our eyes are very good at judging what is white under different light sources, however digital cameras often have great difficulty with auto white balance (AWB). An incorrect WB can create unsightly blue, orange, or even green color casts, which are unrealistic and particularly damaging to portraits. Performing WB in traditional film photography requires attaching a different cast-removing filter for each lighting condition, whereas with digital this is no longer required. Understanding digital white balance can help you avoid color casts created by your camera's AWB, thereby improving your photos under a wider range of lighting conditions"

What we're going to do is have you set up a photo shoot of an object. It doesn't matter what it is or where you do it except that the background should be clutter free as possible, and something in the object or background should be white white.

Since I can't know what camera everyone has and how to use every single camera, you may have to refer to your manual to find out how to change your White Balance manually, or if your camera can actually do it.

You'll be taking 8 pictures. You can use available light or flash - for this it doesn't really matter. You're just doing this to see the difference the white balance can make in a photo.

These are the photos you will be taking. You will be in the automatic shooting section, but you'll choose the white balance for each of the below:
1. Fully Automatic white balance setting
2. Shade
3. Cloudy
4. Daylight
5. Flourescent
6. Tungsten
7. Flash
8. If you have a fully manual camera - auto white balance on manual setting

Here is my study of White Balance so you can see what differences you might see. When you are done, please post it to this thread so that we can see what you have done!

cool! I'll have to do that. Oh, Just a thought. I wonder if your WB will be different if you were to use it without the flash? (all natural light?) Wanna try it? I'd love to see if there is any difference.

Tory

PS. Just did mine. I'll upload them tonight. All mine were without flash. And I accidentally forgot to change my ISO so they are way up at 1600! Should be interesting, but usually my camera handles 1600 incredibly well. (plus it was photographed without flash in full shade so it probably needed a slightly higher ISO....but probably not 1600!) I'll post tonight.

The best thing I had available at the time. This is one thing I really haven't gotten a chance to work on. I know the basics, but as far as details and using gray cards I have no experience with.

Isn't amazing how it changes your pictures??? Which ones do you like better? which setting gave you the truest picture of what you saw?

The fluorescent was truest for me. Just a note too, you can change your WB to intentionally create color casts for creativity....or just shoot RAW. LOL

LMAO - do you get paid for converting us to RAW?? <snicker>

I have a problem with remembering all I have to do for shooting in manual - let alone having to "develop" my pictures afterwards! LOL

Guess that means I am not a photographer but a dilletante!

Susan wrote:LMAO - do you get paid for converting us to RAW??

I have a problem with remembering all I have to do for shooting in manual - let alone having to "develop" my pictures afterwards! LOL

Guess that means I am not a photographer but a dilletante!

Check out the big brains on Bret!
I had to google that one, which by the way brought up some hilarious results on urbandictionary.com. LMAO!

Isn't that what we all are if we're not getting paid? I do this for the amusement. If I didn't I'd be bored as hell!
I wish I got paid for converting people to RAW! No, it's just since I started shooting in RAW I'm just always in awe at all the control in stuff it can do.
I think you know more than you want to believe. It's not scary I swear!

I have the hunger to be a better photographer and I have the eye in my head, but I don't have the practice enough to replicate what I see with my mind's eye. That's the most frustrating part of photography right now. I see this great urban type picture in my head. I dress Melissa all up, get my camera, pick out the locale - an old barn with weeds - or the side of a weathered building and shoot maybe 50-100 shots. None of them capture what my mind sees. SOOOO either my mind is crazy - or I don't have the technical skill to produce the shots I see...and I'd rather think me needing training than to think I'm crazy! LMAO!