NO class, two articles

No class, tonight, because I'm still in Delaware (see my blog for updates).

Check out these two articles, though: One from a dad who shoots his kid's soccer games, and this one with terrific landscape tips.

No Class!!

Remember: No class this week because I'm in Delaware. However, you should still be taking pictures!

Keep an eye here for some articles or something...

Studio, tonight!

I'll see you at the Studio at 5:00. Charge your batteries, and empty your cards!

White Balance

Do you remember your film pictures that you took at your cousin Grace's wedding reception about 22 years ago? You know, the ones that you used your camera's flash to light up faces with. They're the ones with white faces, but everything in the background is orange.

This is a white balance problem. White Balance has to do with the color of light coming into your camera. Daylight is very white, and florescent lights are green, and lightbulbs are orange, while outdoor shade is blue. Each of these colors of light must be dealt with or the pictures won't look quite right.

With Film, we either have to buy film specifically made for the color of light (daylight is the default), or we can counter it with filters on the front of the lens--blue filter counters orange light, pink counters green. Fortunately, in the digital world our cameras can adjust to the light without physical filters.

Unfortunately, your camera's default setting is "Automatic". This usually renders skin tones cooler than I prefer. Look for the White Balance setting on your camera, sometimes just WB. This adjustment alone will make your pictures look better immediately.

For this image, I had some trouble. There were regular old G.E. incandescent (tungsten) lightbulbs lighting the back of the shop to camera left, and large windows to camera right. The sun was not shining directly in the windows, so the light coming in is coming from the blue sky, which means it's very blue light.

So, this would be a very mixed up set up for white balance. I solved the problem by "gelling" my flash. This means I put a gel, a colored piece of transparent plastic, on my flash to match the color of the lightbulbs. This still doesn't solve the blue light from the window problem, though.

When using a flash, shutter speed controls how much ambient light is allowed to affect the exposure. Faster speed, less ambient light. The flash is fast, so it keeps up with a fast shutter speed without trouble.

The result is that the light making the exposure is almost all from the flash. there's a little bit coming from the lamp above the bench, but only because we're looking almost right at the bulb itself.

Besides the gel, I also put a diffusion dome on the flash, and shot it through my Zumbrella (though you can get the same one at a better value here). The flash is to camera right, triggered with the Nikon CLS system (that's the real reason I use Nikon).

At the Studio tonight

See you at the Studio tonight! We have some models coming, so you're off the hook once more for pictures of yourselves, but don't hink I'm not keeping track...

Tonight's class

Bring your camera to the Studio, and be ready to shoot. Also, feel free to stick around for a class on travel photography and the CVP's monthly meeting. It'll be a great lesson from Mel Torrie and me covering our favorite tips for travel photography. Mel is a fabulous photographer.

Also, I recommend reading Photofocus today--it justifies what I told you about my four tips for becoming a better photographer, and I need all the credibility I can get!

My Tips:
   1. Shoot lots of pictures
   2. Look at lots of pictures
   3. Be in lots of pictures
   4. Read your manual

See you tonight.

Monday's Class

Don't forget that class will be at The Studio

106 N. Church Street, just north of the Tabernacle, right behind Zion's Bank (big red sign).

See you there!