1 year old cake fest

[killerseaguls]

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[beagle100]

cute kid
but next time decrease the aperture to get more "DOF" (depth-of-field) so Santa and child and cake are all in focus
And shoot in RAW so you can adjust WB, color, etc.

 

[killerseaguls]

I shot in RAW. It's all I shoot in. I shot the DOF how I wanted in these pictures. I have a few with everything in focus. Biggest issue on these were the high iso I shot in since the house provided crappy light. And using a shutter speed to not blur/get a non grainy image was tough. I'm
Horrible in post editing and all I did with these we're adjust exposure as it was a little underexposed before in my opinion. But, I'm a noob so it could have been fine lol


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[cherylynne1]

My son turns one on the 22nd, so I've got one of these photo shoots coming up too! I like that you included Santa, that's so cute for a December baby.

I agree about the comments made, especially white balance, that sticks out the most to me. I might have tried to clear out the cards from the background as well. I'd also like to see a little more light in the baby's eyes.

But I think it'll be a great photo for the albums. I'm glad you didn't give him a chocolate cake, because you know what that looks like, lol!

 

[killerseaguls]

I guess what I should be asking is, what makes this seem off in reference to white balance? When I look at this I don't see anything incorrect. BUT!!! My eye is untrained since I started doing photography about 3 weeks ago. All info is appreciated.


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[cherylynne1]

In my opinion, white balance is the hardest thing to learn to "see." Everyone struggles with it. It's great that you're shooting in RAW, though, because once you learn to see it you'll be able to go back and re-edit your photos.

If you look at the areas that should be white in the photo, like Santa's hat or the baby's tray, you'll see that they have a distinct yellow cast. Now, as human beings, our eyes are brilliant at readjusting this in our minds. Our eyes see that everything is yellowish, so our brain "corrects" it for us and allows us to recognize what the colors really are rather than what we physically see. You have to learn to turn this off.

If you look at the last picture, the tray is going off the side. I don't know how you're viewing this forum, but for me the pictures are against a pure white background. So the edge of the picture is against the white of the web page. If you compare those, you can see what the table should look like, and how deeply yellow it actually is.

Hope that helps! It really can be easily corrected in Lightroom or whatever you're using to process your RAW photos.

 

[killerseaguls]

I haven't gotten a great post software yet. I use NX-d for now. I downloaded photomatix free trial to play with aeb shots but that's it.


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[cherylynne1]

I'm not familiar with either of those programs. I know when I was first starting out I started with a few free programs, and they mostly frustrated me. I finally signed up for Lightroom and Photoshop, which is $9.99/month and you automatically get all the updates. Lightroom is great for starting out and has a great cataloging feature. And I'm so glad I have Photoshop for the more advanced things that Lightroom can't do. I think it's definitely worth looking into if you're serious about photography.

But for the moment, try googling "how to correct white balance in (whichever program you want to try.)" It's one of those things that most photographers adjust in every photo.

If you never want to adjust white balance in post again, you'll need to purchase a gray card and set a custom white balance every single time you start taking pictures. It's a good idea to do that anyway, but it's nice to have the fallback of post processing for the times you forget.

 

[killerseaguls]

I'm not familiar with either of those programs. I know when I was first starting out I started with a few free programs, and they mostly frustrated me. I finally signed up for Lightroom and Photoshop, which is $9.99/month and you automatically get all the updates. Lightroom is great for starting out and has a great cataloging feature. And I'm so glad I have Photoshop for the more advanced things that Lightroom can't do. I think it's definitely worth looking into if you're serious about photography.

But for the moment, try googling "how to correct white balance in (whichever program you want to try.)" It's one of those things that most photographers adjust in every photo.

If you never want to adjust white balance in post again, you'll need to purchase a gray card and set a custom white balance every single time you start taking pictures. It's a good idea to do that anyway, but it's nice to have the fallback of post processing for the times you forget.

I will get light room eventually. When I get a bit more into it for sure. I shoot in manual mode but the white balance is in auto. Maybe I'll play with that. Thanks!


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[Shades of Blue]

This thread has been great for me understand white balance...my goodness we noobies must learn!

 

[Granddad]

Disappointing - I was expecting photos of a 1 year old cake.

Seriously; auto white balance on most good cameras is pretty good. When you get Lightroom you'll find it's absolute magic at making WB adjustments. Maybe someone will get it for you for Christmas if you ask very nicely?