Camera settings » Hubman's Hangout

Since it was unseasonably chilly Friday evening, the family gathered downstairs and I started a fire. And decided to take some pictures of the fire. I’ve decided to do a lot more shooting in full Manual mode and to move away from Program mode. So it’s probably no surprise then that the first picture was under-exposed, but I really like how it came out!

ISO 200, F/5, 1/125th sec

I messed around with the settings on the camera and decided I wanted to try to capture the flames in a blur, so I slowed down the shutter time, but also bumped up the ISO slightly

I like how I inadvertently caught my reflection in the bottom of the image.

ISO 400, F/4.5, 1 sec

I was flipping through my copy of “Nikon D90 for Dummies” ['cause I'm a dummy...] and was reading about adjusting white balance as a means to make color corrections. I’ve been disappointed with many pictures taken in our bedroom and how the yellow hue of the wall has looked, so I took some pictures to play with different “stock” white balance adjustments available on my camera.

First, using the automatic mode. It looks okay, but all the colors are off just a bit.

Next, I tried the “incandescent” setting and the colors look a lot truer.

Then I tried the “flourescent” setting. That’s no good, but I didn’t expect that setting to work anyway, I just wanted to get a feel for how much of an effect adjusting white balance can have.

And finally, for the hell of it, I tried the “direct sunlight” setting, just to see. Wow, that looks like crap! If our bedroom walls were really that color, I’d always want to keep the lights off!

I’m glad I tried this little exercise, as it looks like using the incandescent setting does a pretty good job of correcting the color problems I’ve noticed before. Now to see how it looks when Veronica is part of the picture. Or maybe I already have