Photographing Pets...Check Your White Balance

Photographing Pets---Check Your White Balance


Many people have asked me, "What's wrong with my pictures?" I bought a neat new camera but it takes crappy pictures. Looking at the pictures, I have to agree..the pictures are crappy. And the problem is most often Not the camera, but the person's lack of knowledge of their camera. Probably a very high percentage of people think you should be able to pick up a camera, shoot a picture, and have it turn out great. That does happen..sometimes. Many times it will not, and that can often be due to improper white balance. Notice that I am speaking of Digital photography here, because that is what I use 95% of the time.
White Balance is a way of controlling the response of the camera to the colors of light your eyes see. There are 3 ways to control the white balance with your camera, automatic, custom, and with pre set modes. Some very small point and shoot cameras will not have a way to adjust them.
First option, automatic, will work pretty well most of the time. The internal chip in your camera will look at the image and adjust the colors so that white is neutral.This will work some of the time, but there will be times when it looks awful.The most common situation for automatic exposure to fail is in dimmer light. This could be at sunrise or sunset when shooting outside. At this time the colors are usually a warmer redish color. The automatic exposure will often miscalculate and make the picture too bright, and the resulting image won't even be close to what you wanted.
SOme of the preset modes work better, but only when the photographer chooses them correctly. There is a daylight, or sunny mode. This makes noonday pictures look more natural. Cloudy setting makes the image look warmer, as if a warming filter were placed on the lens. Many photographers shoot with the cloudy setting most all the time so as to create a more natural look. Most cameras will have a light filter for tungsten light, so the images are not orange. The incandescent mode will help with fluorescent lighting so images are not the off green color. The Flash mode will help to tame down the light of the flash somewhat so the skin tones don't have the bluish cast to them. You should experiment with all the different settings on your camera so you will know what they can do. You will be amazed at the difference in your photography when you master some of these settings. And remember, it's always best to know "Before" you go!