There are many variables that separate a good photograph from a picture that moves me emotionally, and maybe include it on my website.  The "rule-of-thirds" has been hammered into my creative side since elementary school; you can see it in my work.  But I've always taught that rules should be challenged, otherwise how do we know if any rule is valid.  In photography color, saturation, sharpness, contrast, monochrome and the artistic construction is as important as if we were using a brush and paint, but in the computer we can do even more.

     There is an aspect to digital photography that is not well known among people who don't have Black-chinned Hummingbird, female, Wind River Canyon, Wyoming - 1st Place, 49th Cody Art ShowBlack-chinned Hummingbird, Wind River Canyon, Wyoming. Winner of the 1st Place Award at the 49thCody Art Show! small fortunes invested in cameras and computers.  It's something the nerds call white balance, and it's a lot of fun to dink with.  This one technique can make a photograph have the lighting of a perfect sunset; or a cold winter's morning light even more intense.  You can add warmth to a photograph, or just as easily make a picture cold and harsh.  It can make skin tones the right color when the available lighting makes a mess of things, for instance the lights at your son's football game!  It's a great little secret, and here's how it works.

     Rule number one is simple, always shoot in RAW, no exceptions please.  The reasons are also simple, Jpeg is a compression file and you don't want to compress your valuable photographic memories.  A large RAW file off my cameras comes in at twenty-five to nearly thirty megabytes, and if that doesn't slow up your computer, then you must have a newer model.  But a RAW file allows you to manipulate a picture the way an artist paints his canvas.  You just change the white balance!

     Light is measured in the Kelvin scale, an invention named after a guy who liked to heat things up.  But what you need to know is that your RAW file can now have the lighting changed.  Take that white balance slider and move it around, or go from an in-camera setting of AWB (auto white balance) and give your picture some warmth, by changing the setting to cloudy or shade.  But the "Summer Storm"-Wind River Canyon, WyomingA Late Evening Summer Storm in the Wind River Canyon, Wyoming. lighting in a RAW file can be manipulated in the computer, to be anything you'd want it to be.  I can take that cold blue day and give it a little warmth, or the cold dreary lighting of a fall day and make it a scene with golden magic light.  The white balance settings, in your computer, can make every day the perfect golden "magic hour" sunset. 

     And that's the real best kept secret of "professional" photographers, the ability to control the color of light.  I personally like a warmer palate to my work, but there are instances that require a blueish overtone to cool things off a bit.  Portrait photographers use assorted toys to get the light right; some as simple as an eighteen percent grey card, or crazy expensive light meters.  In my wildlife photography I use Cottontail Rabbit @ 20 Below Zero-Wind River Canyon, WyomingTwenty Below Zero! in the Wind River Canyon, Wyoming and a Cottontail Rabbit hides in the snow. AWB or the Daylight  settings, but in the computer I can change the WB settings to make the photograph feel a bit warmer than the available sunlight.

     That is all most people need to know about the white balance settings in their pictures; there are numbers that you'll see, "I changed the in-camera AWB of 5200K to 6800K on the computer to warm up the light in this landscape."  In digital photography you are the artist, the canvas is yours to do with as you feel....experiment with white balance and I think you'll feel the artist coming out in you!

Blog and Photography by Michael John Balog

Wind River Canyon, Wyoming

HogbatsPhotography.com

Thank you for reading this week's blog.