more fresh pics...

[Black_Noise]

with the ram, and it was spitting a little snow.

(P.S. it was a tight squeeze going up and down the parking garage... see the second to LAST picture)


http://www.mercurymarauder.net/showcase/files/4/6/2/8/R007_876726.jpg
http://www.mercurymarauder.net/showcase/files/4/6/2/8/R037.jpg

http://www.mercurymarauder.net/showcase/files/4/6/2/8/R041.jpg

http://www.mercurymarauder.net/showcase/files/4/6/2/8/R023.jpg

http://www.mercurymarauder.net/showcase/files/4/6/2/8/R020_708816.jpg

http://www.mercurymarauder.net/showcase/files/4/6/2/8/R008.jpg

http://www.mercurymarauder.net/showcase/files/4/6/2/8/R042_612386.jpg

http://www.mercurymarauder.net/showcase/files/4/6/2/8/R045_323154.jpg

[Bigdogjim]

Nice shots now please keep the snow where it is:):D

[CRUZTAKER]

Manual white balance settings.

Your camera has no clue on a gloomy day.
You need to force 4-5000 kelvin.

The truck being grey, and the gloomy day, was going to be a challange from the start.
The camera made all of it's color choices based on the truck. Thus the snow appears nice and white, but the remainer of the objects are flat and lifeless.

Without looking at your exif info, I do not know what white balance setting you were using, whether AUTO or one of the presets such as CLOUDY.
These settings set precedence for how warm or cool the image will appear.

The standard measure for color of light is color temp, measured in Kelvin. Lower readings associate with warmer tones, and higher with cooler tones. Using the the TUNGSTEN setting in your preset white balance would have yielded around 8000k, and resulting in your images to have a bluish tint. The DAYLIGHT and SHADE presets will result in warm shades in the 1000-4000 range.

Moral to the story...our brains adjust white balance. Knowing something to be white, our brains perceive it as white even if the color of the surrounding light changes. A camera cannot do this, and MUST be told what to do.

Read up onwhite balance in your book, and perhaps other manuals and start experimenting!

Good luck.

[Black_Noise]

cruztaker-

Thanks for the info!

I knew the sky would turn out like crap, and the pics would be darker, I was trying different ISO settings, but you say to change the white balance? Is there a chart of all settings of white balance = Kelvin, and what conditions call for which settings?


Thanks

[CRUZTAKER]

Changing ISO only allows you to shoot in darker situations without using a flash. Bear in mind, the higher the ISO the more f-stops you will loose, and in most cases except for the higher end Nikons, 'noise' or grain will appear with ISO above 3400, and even over 1200 in most low end dslr's. Hand holding also becomes a problem.

All of these issues are also relative to the lens you are using. The fast lenses, f1.4 to f2.8 will allow lower ISO in darker situations. Any lens over f2.4 is going to require more light at and or higher ISO in low light situations.

My current all purpose 18-200 is a f4.5 lens. Awefull in low light even though I paid over $700 for it. It might work well on a $4000 Nikon D3 or D300 (which shoot noise free up to ISO 9600 and marginal at ISO 24,500), but I am shooting as mid level D80 (noise free up to ISO 1600 and downhill from there). I MUST buy a fast lens this year to shoot lower light and likely the 100mm f2.8 is all that I can afford this year (around $650). The jump to a f1.4 fixed 80mm or 100mm jumps to over $1500.

Now, back to white balance. This is not going to correct brightness/darkness in the same fashion ISO (SENSITIVITY) does.
It only corrects the warmness/coolness of the color rendering from the image processor.

I cannot remember which camera you use, but somewhere in your menu, you may be able to find your white balance settings. Typical dslrs allow ISO changes via the thumb wheel after pressing and holding a multi-function ISO button on the camera. This is how the Nikons work. However, to find the manual settings, even I must go through the camera's menu, and find the setting for 'manual' or 'user defined' in the white balance menu. There you will likely be able to use buttons/thumbwheel to create your own user defined white balance. It WILL be in degrees Kelvin regardless of camera as this is the industry stand in photography.

Remember, just like wire AWG sizes, the numbers are opposite. The higher the number in degrees, the cooler the image will process (lighter-bluer). The lower the number, the warmer (darker browner) the image will process.

Custom white balance is extremely usefull when the image you want to capture has a variety objects with different tones. Such as a canyon ravine, shadowed, with water below, colorfull stone sides, and say a small tree with yellow flowers jutting out in the far end of the image. The camera will have no clue as to what item in the image to set it's color temp to for the capture. Everything may be too dark using the auto cloudy setting, darker even using the sunny setting, and oddly blue or white using incandescent or flourescent setting. Manual is the only way to go, and snap several using different temps to check after download.

.....phew....sorry long post....


ALL OF WHAT I SAID CAN BE DISREGARDED IF YOU SHOOT RAW.
In raw, you may edit your images with a variety of high end software and change the white balance AFTER the capture to whatever you want.

RAW is complicated, requires large memory cards, and proper software for corrections and conversions. RAW captures every bit of info in the image and allows every change imaginable....except shatty composition. :P
That's all on you.;)

[Black_Noise]

I shoot with just a cannon powershot sd630, not even a DSRL, but I try to make it work.

I do know of the white balance menu on my camera, I usually only have to mess with it when going from outdoor to indoor.

Im still more interested in the settings Kelvin wise and to what types of pic it applys.

Like you said before,


Manual white balance settings.

Your camera has no clue on a gloomy day.
You need to force 4-5000 kelvin.

The standard measure for color of light is color temp, measured in Kelvin. Lower readings associate with warmer tones, and higher with cooler tones. Using the the TUNGSTEN setting in your preset white balance would have yielded around 8000k, and resulting in your images to have a bluish tint. The DAYLIGHT and SHADE presets will result in warm shades in the 1000-4000 range.

Is there a chart of which situations apply to which conditions, and which kelvin setting it calls for?

[CRUZTAKER]

It's all hit or miss depending on the subject.
There is no chart. Just a basic rule of thumb, and multiple exposures.

[CRUZTAKER]

I did want to comment that we have a parking deck that damn near mirrors that one in build style, decks, and even background at 650 Huron next to the Gund Arena downtown.

I parked in it yesterday for a Hockey game.