White Balance

White balance is the way your camera reads light temperature and colour. Most people just often leave it on AWB (automatic white balance) but you can (and should!) change it indoors, with flash etc. You know when your indoor pictures of people have that yellow/orange tinge? That is why. If you look on your camera for the white balance settings they have cloudy, flash, fluorescent lighting, custom, etc.

The picture above was shot in RAW so I could adjust the white balance in post production. LOVE IT. Shooting in RAW is the greatest change I ever made to my photography but I won't talk about that right now.

This picture is fine but you can see that it was shot with an automatic white balance giving her face an orange/pink/yellow hue.

So find that white balance button on your camera and change it for the situation you find yourself in. See what kind of difference it can make....especially indoors.

So You Have a DSLR, Now What?

So many people have told me that they have a nice camera but they don't really know how to use it. They just use the automatic settings and let it do all the work. Wouldn't it be fun if you knew how to use all of the buttons and dials?! Wouldn't it be fun if they flash didn't automatically pop up?

Gary would have different advice so I will do my advice today and then do a part II with his advice:)

There are 3 things that I think are very important to know.

1. ISO. This is equivalent to the old film that you used to put in your camera. Remember? You used 100 when you were shooting outside or where there was a lot of light. You used 800 when shooting in the dark. Same as ISO, you need to increase your ISO in darker situations. Yes, your picture will have more noise (look grainier) but you will actually see your subject.

2. Aperture. This is the amount of light that is let in. When people talk about f stops, that is what they are talking about. The smaller the number, the larger the aperture (more light let in). Our 50mm lens goes all the way to f/1.4 which is awesome. I usually shoot with a really high aperture and this also gives the look of the subject in focus and the background being blurry. If you want everything in focus, you will want a lower aperture (higher f stop).

3. Shutter speed. This is related to ISO and aperture. You generally want a fast shutter speed or your subject will be blurry. So, to increase you shutter speed, you need to probably crank your ISO up a bit and increase your aperture. You generally want a shutter speed of around 1/125th or faster.

So, take your camera out of auto mode and turn the dial to `AV' or aperture priority. Take pictures at various ISO's and apertures. Note the shutter speeds that you get. If the shutter speed is too slow (ex 1/40th), then increase your ISO or increase your aperture (make it a smaller number). Let me know how it goes!