Since we’re emphasizing the importance of taking nice pictures on the Hellobee Blogger Application, I thought I would write up some basic photography tutorials. I took some photography lessons this past summer, and it was pretty shameful how little I knew about photography given that I’ve had a DSLR camera for years. I’ve read up on photography terms like aperture and shutter speed and ISO over the years, but I never really got it. The problem with photography tutorials for me has always been that they usually come from professional photographers. I needed it dumbed down.
I thought I’d cover White Balance first because it’s one of the easiest things to understand. White balance is the ability of your camera to read the color white accurately in different lighting conditions. Our eyes do this automatically so white looks white whether we’re in low light or bright light. A digital camera, on the other hand, needs a reference point for the color white. This is important because an incorrect white balance can result in pictures giving off yellow/orange, green, or blue tints.
The White Balance on the Canon camera is adjusted by pressing the WB button on the back of the camera. Then you can set it to auto, daylight, shade, cloudy, tungsten (lamp light), fluorescent, flash, or custom depending on the lighting conditions under which you’re taking pictures.
sunlight = white light
tungsten (light bulb) = yellow light
flash/shade/cloudy = blue light
fluorescent = green light
candlelight = red light
Auto
Daylight
Shade
Cloudy
Tungsten
Fluorescent
You can really see the difference huh? When I used to take my pictures in automatic mode, they would frequently turn out too yellow or orange when I was indoors. Setting the white balance to tungsten has made a world of difference.
When I’m taking pictures, I first set my ISO and White Balance. These usually remain the same as long as my pictures are all taken in the same lighting conditions. Then I manually adjust my aperture and shutter speed before each picture. I thought it was so complicated, but now that I finally know how to do it, it’s become second nature. I shoot manual 100% of the time, and I can never go back.
Next up the exciting world of aperture/f-stops and shutter speeds!
Photography Tutorials part 1 of 10
1. Photography 101 - White Balance by Mrs. Bee2. Photography 101 - Aperture by Mrs. Bee
3. Camera Basics by Mrs. Chocolate
4. 5 Simple Tips to Take Better Pictures of Your Kids by Hannah @ Happily Everly After
5. Top 10 iPhone Photo Apps by Hannah @ Happily Everly After
6. Favorite Photo Apps by Apps
7. Easy Peasy Post-Processing by Mrs. Superhero
8. Interchangable lens cameras: An easy DSLR alternative by Mrs. Yoyo
9. Top 10 Ways I Improved My Photography by Mrs. Bee
10. Taking self portraits with your children by Mrs. Superhero
honeydew / 7968 posts
cool, thanks! i too need it dumbed down. i know what aperature and shutter speed is technically supposed to do, but i’m not good at 1. application and 2. not sure how exactly it affects the pictures.
honeydew / 7968 posts
btw, can you tell me which one most accurately depicts the subject?
admin / watermelon / 14210 posts
it was overcast out, so cloudy looks the most true to life. you can see that daylight is more blue while shade is more yellow. if i got the white balance wrong, i could fix it in photoshop by adjusting the color balance, but not everyone has photoshop or lightroom. i try to get it right when i’m shooting the pic so i have less editing to do. most of the pics i post are straight out of the camera….
cherry / 153 posts
Have you ever tried setting custom white balance? I haven’t done that yet, but have been meaning to try.
wonderful pomelo / 30692 posts
Oh my gosh, this is going to be soooooo helpful! I hope you continue with these photography lessons! I have a dSLR camera, but have yet to shoot in manual. I feel like it takes me forever to set everything and then I’ll either miss the picture or people get annoyed with me for taking so long. And if I don’t set it well the first time, I have to redo it, because I have nooooo idea what I’m doing! Currently I have mine in aperture priority and just change the aperture and let everything else get set automatically, but I’d love to know how to do things in manual and QUICKLY.
persimmon / 1194 posts
Thank you so much Mrs.Bee! I’ve been planning on taking a photography class for years and now with a little one on the way I know I will want to document everything. Do you have any recommendations on DSLR cameras? DH and I are thinking about getting one if they are on sale black Friday
clementine / 861 posts
Thank you for posting this!! I think photography posts will be really helpful.
hostess / wonderful apple seed / 16729 posts
Thanks MrsBee. My husband is the artist in the family; therefore photographer so he does most of the picture taking. We did buy a Canon Rebel Xsi about a year ago and I use the auto setting because I don’t want to bother with everything else. Which Canon do you have?
Later on, we probably will sell our Rebel Xsi and get one of the Canon’s with video capabilities.
grapefruit / 4997 posts
Thank you so much for sharing this info. I usually spend hours upon hours editing photos and so that’s why I am so reluctant to share photos because I am too lazy to edit them. So any quick tips helps greatly.
honeydew / 7917 posts
Like bluestriped bee, my husband is the designated photographer. The big camera scares me, but I am slowly getting more comfortable using it. The settings are usually preset by him, and I just point and shoot.
I recently played with exposure, and today I messed around with white balance after reading your post. Wow! It’s life changing in my sheltered camera world. We shoot in raw format, and my husband leaves the white balance set at auto. That just means more work for me in post processing. Now I can set the white balance all my myself. Yay! Thank you so much!!
apricot / 260 posts
So excited about this. My Dad is letting me borrow one of his “fancy” cameras, but I’m at a total loss as to how to use it.
pea / 17 posts
I loved your photog updates on your xanga as well! These mini tutorials are sooo helpful for a complete newb like me. I look back on past photos and so wish I had learned a few of these tricks earlier.
Just wondering – which point and shoot did you end up getting? I remember you were considering between the Lumix and TL. Are you still working your way up to the 5D as well? Or did you get one already? ;p
coconut / 8483 posts
can’t wait for the rest of the series!