I’ve mentioned before that one of the things I want to do is learn more about Photoshop and specifically, photo editing. I’d also like to learn more about how to use my camera, a Sony Alpha-100. The other day I was just playing and figured out how to use the Custom White Balance setting, and tonight managed to take 2 pictures that very vividly demonstrate what that can do for you.
Backstory, or…why I took pictures of a sock on a keyboard:
My Mom’s Old Computer is going to become my Aunt’s New Computer, and I needed to clean some stuff off of it and see if I could make it not be so stinking slow. Interestingly enough, simply uninstalling Trend Micro anti-virus seems to have done the trick as far as speeding things up…
As I was sitting and waiting and waiting and waiting for it to do things I suddenly thought HEY! While I sit here I could be knitting! And I am now wishing that all those years ago when I actually worked with computers for a living and spent HOURS of my life waiting for them to do things, I could have been KNITTING. Just think how much knitting I could have gotten done!!!
And now the pictures:
First picture taken using the Night mode on my camera. The color is WAY off. (No flash, just the overhead light).
The only thing I changed for this picture was setting the Custom White Balance, using the white countertop as the white reference point and voila:
Like night and day, isn’t it?
I didn’t do any further editing of the pictures, just resized them for the Internet.
If you are wondering what on Earth I mean by White Balance, here is a tutorial I just found that explains it much more clearly than I could:
Understanding White Balance (even if you just click over and read the first paragraph, you’ll get the idea)
What I know about photography could fit in a thimble, and I hope to at least expand that up to a mug by the end of the year. I’ll try not to bore you too much in the process, but I’m such a geek that stuff like this really tickles me.
(And look! I’m on the heel flap of my sock! Isn’t it purty??)
Suzanne
Thank you for the great link. I hope you continue to share these kinds of links as you find them along your journey. I’m in about the same position as you regarding photography and I definitely want to learn more about both it and Photoshop. Especially since our digital slr has this annoying white balance button right where I want to put my thumb……
Btw, nice sock. Have you ever tried toe-up? I love Weny’s simply, easy instructions: http://wendyknits.net/
I haven’t changed the setting on my camera but I do frequently change it once I’ve downloaded the photo to the computer using photo editing software. One of these days I’d like to learn more about using the manual settings on my camera but there never seems to be enough time to do it all.