Watch Your White Balance Settings!

It's incredible, the color difference white balance can make!

My digital camera education has been entirely self-taught.
(Every so often I learn the hard way!)

Today's Lesson: The Importance of White Balance!

Make sure you use the correct white balance setting when photographing your artwork or you might get the color differences you see above. I had never fully grasped the whole idea of white balance and hadn't taken the time to read the camera manual fully to learn about it. I did notice that my pictures were looking very bluish, but I thought it was just my monitor's settings being off. When I printed an 8x10" glossy of the piece and held it up to the actual work, I knew I had a problem! The difference was like night and day!

The 1st picture above (on the left) more closely resembles the actual art. It is a pastel painting on paper which has a reddish-purple background and lots of warm yellows and oranges in the flower petals. The stalks and leaves range from a rich dark green to a very light yellow-green on the highlights. The brown in the flower center is the color of dark chocolate. (I checked before I chomped down on the last of my Valentine's Day Hershey bar!) Then there's the picture on the right! I know that computer monitors can vary a lot as far as color, but I am hoping that the color difference I see between the two pictures, can also be seen on your monitor.

The good news is, knowing how to set the proper white balance setting will greatly improve my photographic capabilities.

The bad news is, I guess I have some work ahead of me, going back to check previous photos!

My white balance had been set for a halogen light, and the photos were taken outside on a cloudy day! I have no idea for how long it was set that way!!! (Hmmm,... now that I think of it those cityscapes of the Philadelphia skyline I've been taking all seemed kinda blue too!...)

Oh well, ya' live and learn!