Lesson Info
9. Auto White Balance
Lessons
Buttons, Dials and Switches: What This Course is All About
03:37 2Setting Up Your Camera
05:25 3JPEG or RAW
03:11 4Compression
01:38 5Menu Settings for JPEG Shooting
05:19 6Module 1 Summary
01:42 7Applying White Balance
03:41 8Using White Balance Creatively
01:19Auto White Balance
03:07 10Module 2 Summary
01:31 11Controlling Exposure
01:23 12F Numbers
03:06 13Lens, Aperture, and Shutter Speed
03:32 14Exposure Modes
01:48 15Too Little or Too Much Light
02:34 16Manual Exposure Mode
01:37 17Aperture Priority Exposure Mode
02:23 18Module 3 Summary
01:40 19ISO in Practice
01:16 20ISO and Noise
05:03 21An Acceptable ISO
01:23 22Module 4 Summary
01:29 23Metering Modes
03:06 24The Light Meter
02:11 25The Bucket Test
02:12 26How To Read Tonality
02:32 27Being Creative With Tone
01:14 28Exposure Compensation
01:35 29High Contrast Lighting
03:39 30Histogram
02:06 31Highlights Alert
01:32 32Never Underexpose
04:16 33Digital Exposure Mantra
01:25 34Module 5 Summary
02:57 35Focus Modes
01:23 36Autofocus
02:59 37Point of Focus
02:35 38Depth of Field
02:41 39Hyper-Focal Distance Focusing
02:51 40Focus Tracking
04:19 41Manual Focus
01:57 42Predictive Focus
01:03 43Summary
02:32 44Buying Lenses
05:00 45Summary
01:45 46Quality of Light
01:32 47Direction of Light
01:52 48No Such Thing as Good Light
02:00 49Final Word
02:52 50BONUS - In Conversation with Art Wolfe
07:11 51BONUS - The Source of Creativity
06:34Lesson Info
Auto White Balance
now you've probably come across auto white balance. When set to auto white balance, the camera assesses the color temperature of the light in the senor photographing and sets an exact white balance value to neutralize any color caste. On the whole, it's slightly more accurate than the standard presets. However, it's sole purpose is to create images with neutral color characteristics. So it's not the best setting if you want to add or enhance color casts now. That said, I almost always have my cameras set to auto white balance, and that's because I shooting raw and white man. It is one of the settings you can change in computer as if you had changed it in the camera. The advantage is I have much finer control over setting the perfect white balance value in the computer than I do in the camera. However, if you're shooting in J peg mode because the camera is processing, the image is important to get to grips with white balance, especially how it effects the look and feel of your images an...
d practice. Setting it in camera because it's really difficult to fix errors later, the best way to get to grips with white balance and to learn how to use it both technically and artistically, is to go out and do some test shots. So for this series of tests, what I've done is I've set the camera up on a tripod. What I'm going to do now is I'm going to take a series of images that each of the different preset white balance settings I'm going to start first with the sunlight, the daylight setting because that's the one that gives us our line in the sand, the one that basically shows us a picture as we see it with the naked eye. So that's my line in the sand picture. And now what I'm going to do is simply take a series of images of each of those different preset white balance settings. I'm going to start with cloudy, which will warm the picture up just that little bit, and then I'm going to shift it into the next one, up with his shade, and we'll see with this picture again. There's just that little bit of extra warm from the photograph. We've just taken out some of the blues and we've added more red. We're going to do now is going to go in the opposite direction. I'm going to go towards the blue tones. I'm gonna move it around this time into initially into the fluorescent setting. And if we compare that to the initial daylight setting, we'll see that there's a much cooler tone to the picture finally, down into the tungsten setting. And again, if we compare this image, we'll see that there's an even blue atone. So simply by just testing those different white balance settings, those different presets on looking at them either on the screen or later. When you get back home on the computer, you can see how white balance is changing the color tone of the pictures that you're taking. And, of course, remember that the time to practice is not when you have the perfect image in the competition winning shot. What kind of practices when the weather is like this is blowing a gale is pouring with rain, and frankly, I would much rather be at home inside in front of the fire
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Ratings and Reviews
mark jacobson
What a marvelous course! What a marvelous teacher! When I went to college, my father would always ask me about my professors, more than the courses themselves. He was passionate about learning and although too busy with earning an income to go beyond an undergrad degree, continued to read 50 books a year. I still remember how he'd get almost visibly excited when I'd tell him about some special professor who taught with such enthusiasm and, more than just passion, evident delight and joy in the subject. 'Ah they're the best, son. How wonderful you have such a teacher." Well, he passed away decades ago but if he were still around I'd get a kick out of telling him about Chris Weston, the 'Prof' of this course. He's one of the very special ones: a teacher who's loved and lived his vocation--his avocation--since he was a boy--and still is as excited about it now as he was then. The result: a course that seems to be more a labor of love--of pouring far more energy and thought into the details then one typically finds in these courses--than anything else. Bravo Chris! I'm already on to your next one.
user-6402bf
Chris is an amazing instructor who dissects theory giving amazing analogies that bring concepts to life. I have rarely been able to sit through most video course for more than a half-hour but watched this one from beginning to end. A good refresher course if you've been away from the camera for awhile or there are some concepts that still illude you. I highly recommend this course and look forward to watching his others. Thank you for the clarity and great explanations.
Sky Bergman
This was an amazing class. I have looked at a number of basic photography classes. This one was by far the best I have seen. Chris is an exceptional teacher. He breaks things down into digestible information and then inspires you to be creative. Thank you!
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Fundamentals