Adjusting the white balance basically means making sure that a part of the picture that is supposed to be a neutral color does actually contain equal amounts of red, green and blue. We call it white balance but it works equally well with light gray parts of the scene, however generally speaking the lighter the better. If the gray parts of the picture are indeed rendered gray then it follows that all the other colors in the scene will be rendered in a natural looking way.

On the right you can see the effect of right and wrong white balance in a composition with delicate colors. The more pastel the colors in the scene the more important it is to get the white balance correct.

On most modern cameras we have an AWB (automatic white balance) setting, various fixedcolor temperature settings such as ‘daylight’, ‘tungsten’ and ‘flash’ and, on the better cameras, and a custom setting.

Most of the time we can set the white balance to automatic and forget all about it. Normally I do not lose too much sleep over the white balance setting of my photos as, provided it is not too far out, the color balance can be changed in the computer. The auto setting gives a reasonably accurate rendition in daylight or with flash and the odd tweak in the computer is no great hardship.

If I was going to shoot pictures indoors without a flash then I would definitely set the WB to the ‘indoor’ setting, as the difference in color would be too great to ensure good color in the editing. However, 99% of the time, like most people, I either shoot in daylight or use flash.

There is though, no substitute for getting it right in the camera and it can sometimes save you a lot of work later on. Every now and again I get involved in mass portrait sessions where I shoot 500 or more portraits in a couple of days. Allowing myself 3 or 4 shots per person, I can end up with as many as 2000 pictures to process. The last thing I want to do is worry about the color balance of that many shots, so making sure it is right in the camera is important. In this case I would use the ‘custom’ setting to ensure a consistent color on all pictures. Using the custom setting is easier than it might at first appear, basically all you have to do is take a photo of something white or light gray under the lighting you are going to use. If you are doing portraits then get the sitter to hold a white or gray card while you take the first picture, filling the frame with the card. Then, refer to the instruction book of your camera to find out how to import the white balance from this picture into your custom setting. The white balance, once set, will remain until you overwrite it with another setting. So, provided the lighting does not change, all your pictures will be properly balanced.

Correct white balance

Too blue – shot with flash while white balance was set to indoor lighting.

Too orange – shot with tungsten lighting while white balance was set to daylight.

AWB (automatic white balance) is the default setting and the one you should use most of the time. Daylight, shade, cloud, flash and tungsten are all fixed settings that you can use under the appropriate lighting conditions. Have a look at the color temperature chart to understand what they do. Basically they are like the old filters that users of film would screw onto the front of their lenses to compensate for different color temperatures. The advantage of using these fixed settings as opposed to the AWB is that a predominance of one color in your scene will not cause the camera to give a false reading.

The ‘fluorescent’ setting is slightly different in that it is not part of the color temperaturescale. Fluorescent tubes are basically balanced for daylight as far as the yellow/blue scale is concerned, but they tend give out too much green (or not enough magenta) light. There are many different types of fluorescent tubes so this is a bit of a sweeping statement and you should test each situation, but if you are shooting in an office or factory, lit by fluorescent light, this setting can get you out of trouble.

The ‘custom’ setting I have discussed above and is also covered in the article on the gray card .

Thanks to http://www.geofflawrence.com/white_balance.html

Getting your digital images perfectly sharp is something that most photographers want – however clean, crisp, sharp images can be difficult to achieve. 

Perhaps before we start exploring how to improve sharpness it would be good to talk about the main causes for lack of sharpness:

• Poor Focus – the most obvious way to get images that are ‘un-sharp’ is through having them out of focus. This might be a result of focussing upon the wrong part of the image, being too close to your subject for the camera to focus, selecting an aperture that generates a very narrow depth of field or taking an image too quickly without checking it is in focus.
• Subject Movement - another type of ‘blur’ in shots is the result of your subject moving – this is generally related to shutter speed being too slow.
• Camera Shake – similarly you can get blur if you as the photographer generate movement while taking the image – this often relates to either shutter speed and/or the stillness of your camera.
• Noise – ‘noisy’ shots are ones that are pixelated and look like they have lots of little dots over them (get up close to your TV and you’ll get the same impact).

Here’s a list of 10 basic things to think about when shooting to get sharp images.

1. Hold Your Camera Well

A lot of blur in the photos that I see is a direct result of camera shake (the movement of your camera for that split second when your shutter is open). While the best way to tackle camera shake is to use a Tripod (see below) there are many times when using one is impractical and you’ll need to shoot while holding your camera. I’ve written a tutorial previously on how to hold a digital camera but in brief – use both hands, keep the camera close to your body, support yourself with a wall, tree or some other solid object etc.

2. Tripods

Regular readers of this site will have seen my recent series on tripods and know that I’m a big fan of them as a way to reduce (and even eliminate) camera shake. While not always practical, the result you’ll get when you do go to the effort of hauling one around can be well worth it.

3. Shutter Speed

Perhaps one of the first things to think about in your quest for sharp images is the shutter speed that you select. Obviously – the faster your shutter speed the less impact camera shake will have and the more you’ll freeze any movement in your shots. As a result you reduce the likelihood of two of the main types of blur in one go (subject movement and camera movement). Remember the ‘rule’ for handheld shutter speeds:

So:

• if you have a lens that is 50mm in length don’t shoot any slower than 1/60th of a second
• if you have a lens with a 100mm focal length shoot at 1/125th of a second or faster
• if you are shooting with a lens of 200mm shoot at 1/250th of a second or faster

Keep in mind that the faster your shutter speed is the larger you’ll need to make your Aperture to compensate – this will mean you have a smaller depth of field which makes focussing more of a challenge (read more on Shutter Speed).

4. Aperture

Aperture impacts the depth of field (the zone that is in focus) in your images. Decreasing your aperture (increasing the number – say up to f/20) will increase the depth of field meaning that the zone that is in focus will include both close and distant objects. Do the opposite (for example moving to f/4) and the foreground and background of your images will be more out of focus and you’ll need to be more exact with what you focus your camera upon. Keep in mind that the smaller your aperture the longer your shutter speed will need to be – which of course makes moving subjects more difficult to keep sharp (read more on Aperture).

5. ISO

The third element of the exposure triangle is ISO which has a direct impact upon the noisiness of your shots. Choose a larger ISO and you’ll be able to use faster shutter speed and smaller aperture (which as we’ve seen help with sharpness) but you’ll suffer by increasing the noise of your shots. Depending upon your camera (and how large you want to enlarge your images) you can probably get away with using ISO of up to 400 (or even 800 on some cameras) without too much noise but for pin sharp images keep it as low as possible). Read more on ISO.

6. Image Stabilisation

Many cameras and lenses are now being released with different forms of image stabilisation (IS) which won’t eliminate camera shake – but can definitely help reduce its impact. I find that using IS lenses that it will give me an extra two or three stops (ie I can use slower shutter speeds but 2-3 stops) when hand holding my camera. Keep in mind that IS helps with camera movement but not subject movement as it allows you to use slower shutter speeds (not good for moving subjects).

7. Focus

Perhaps the most obvious technique to work on when aiming for sharp lenses is focussing. Most of us use ‘Auto Focussing’ with our cameras but don’t assume that the camera will always get it right. Always visually check what part of the image is in focus before hitting the shutter and if it’s not right try again or switch to manual focus mode. This is particularly important if you’re shooting with a large aperture (small depth of field) where even being slightly out can result in your subject being noticeably out of focus.

8. Good lenses

This one is for DSLR owners – if you have the budget for it invest in good quality lenses as they can have a major impact upon the sharpness of your images. For example shortly after buying my DSLR I was in the market for a everyday zoom lens that would give me the ability to have both wide (ish) and telephoto zoom capabilities. I bought a Canon EF 28-135mm lens. It was a good lens (and reasonably priced) but it wasn’t as sharp as some of my other lenses. A few months later I borrowed a Canon EF 24-105mm ‘L series’ (the professional series of lenses from Canon) lens from a friend and was amazed by the difference in sharpness between the lenses. While the first lens was good for what I paid for it I ended up going for an upgrade and the new lens is now almost permanently attached to my camera.

9. Get your Eyes Checked

Since I was young I’ve worn glasses but in recent years I’ve been a little slack in getting my eyes checked. Recently I got them tested for the first time in a number of years and was surprised to find that they’d deteriorated significantly. Getting new glasses improved a number of areas of my life, one of which was my photography. Also connected with this is checking the ‘diopter’ on your camera (if it has one. The diopter is a little adjustment that you can make to how your viewfinder works – it’s particularly useful for people with poor eye sight – it’s usually a little wheel next to your viewfinder.

10. Clean equipment

Recently my wife and I went on a window cleaning frenzy at our place. Over the previous months the grime on our windows had gradually built up without us really noticing it. When we did clean them though we were amazed at how much more light got through and how much better the view outside was. The same can be true for your camera’s lens. Keep it clean and you’ll eliminate the smudges, dust and grime that can impact your shots. Similarly – a clean image sensor is a wonderful thing if you have a DSLR as getting dust on it can produce noticeable blotches in your end images.

From Canon’s Photography courses.

At an event in addition to shooting regular shots, try to pay attention to the details instead of the whole thing. A ring that slides over a finger is far more penetrating than two people that are doing ‘something’ with each other’s hands. A pen that floats over a sheet of paper says more than someone signing their signature. A knife disappearing into the cake is more artistic than the obligatory photograph of the couple cutting it. Be

creative and zoom in on the details that symbolise a situation or act. Also have a

look at how the location has been decorated. Photograph the streamers, a tray of

champagne glasses or a festively laid table just before the dinner commences.Again, the same applies that a single artistically folded napkin can say more than twenty covers in a row.

There are a number of differences between these pictures in terms of composition. For starters the first is closer and fills the frame (I’ll write about this in a future post) but for the purposes of this composition tip I want to talk about the angle that I shot the two shots from.

The second shot is taken by me standing some distance from the pineapple as I approached it. In the first shot I got much closer and crouched down to accentuate my smallness and the pineapple’s bigness. I could have gone a step further and lay down on the ground to shoot it for even greater impact.

Not only does changing the angle that you shoot from impact the feeling of size of your subject but it can have a real effect upon the light and shade and patterns on it. You can see in the picture on the left that the patterns on the pineapple are more pronounced as a result of the angle I shot it from.

Here are some ideas for new angles:

*Lying or crouching in front of the subject 

*Climbing above it

*Putting your camera on the ground and chancing it.

Seen on http://digital-photography-school.com/finding-fresh-angles-to-shoot-from-digital-photography-composition-tip

Read more: http://digital-photography-school.com/finding-fresh-angles-to-shoot-from-digital-photography-composition-tip#ixzz0SkNwPERz

*Take pictures of a sunrise or sunset. It is a very good shot particularly if  you use a small exposure as it gives  the  sun a glow.                                                           

See the suns glow?

 *Take close up pictures of flowers. Remember, use your macro mode.

I used a macro mode on this one.

*Take pictures of the water especialy if there is agood reflection on the water.

The reflection of the water displays all the different colours

* Take pictures of anything and remember to take your camera everywhere!