Page 180 - Friedman Archives

180 The “Recording” (Camera icon) Menu Settings

Figure 5-38: A comparison of spectrum put out by daylight (left), incandescent bulbs
(center), and Compact Florescent bulbs (right). Our eyes and brain adjust seamlessly,
but cameras often need help.

colored snapshots.

This is where digital cameras are a huge improvement – they have the
ability to sense what kind of light they are shooting under, and correct for it
automatically. Every pro in the world salivated over this feature when
digital cameras started to appear. The ability for the camera to adjust to
any kind of indoor light is called “White Balance” – it means that if you
take a picture of a white wall, it will come out looking white even though it
is being illuminated by the yellowish color of a lightbulb or the greenish
color of a flourescent.
What the WB function does isn’t rocket science – all it does is add a tint to
the image. No intelligence going on at all – just a blanket color cast. You
can see this in action as you thumb through the options: Just do MENU 
5  White Balance (or invoke it from the Fn menu) and then scroll UP
and DOWN and watch the parade of color casts get applied to the live view
image.

TIP: Your camera will always make white balance and exposure errors when
shooting in the forest. I talk about how to correct for it in 2 easy steps in my
blog: http://tinyurl.com/267m2ka

Contents of this book Copyright © 2014 Gary L. Friedman. All rights reserved.