White balance is a tool that helps display accurate light and colors in a digital image.  It is a rather easy adjustment to make if you have the time.  White balance helps the photographer get the most accurate lighting in a scene (how the human eye sees it).  Below are two subject which I chose to shoot in my office.  The dollhouse was inside with sunlight behind me and bulb lighting from above.  The last picture of the dollhouse seems to match the real life color of the house and the room which is on the fluorescent setting.  The red shoe tape dispenser was faced towards the window with the sun behind it.  This one was a bit tougher to tell the true color but I think the third one down is the correct color and setting. The direct sunlight setting was used for this one.  At home or on my own time I have the patience and time to set up a shot and do a white balance check.  At work and on the go, it can be hard and I use the automatic white balance for the majority of these shots. If the color is not what I want to expected or off I usually correct it in Photoshop with the curve tool.

  

Incandescent

Direct sunlight

Flash

Cloudy

Shade

Fluorescent

Incandescent

Fluorescent

Direct Sunlight

Flash

Cloudy

Shade

 

Until this lesson, I have never fully understood the ISO function.  I was always under the assumption that shutter speeds and ISO measurements were somehow related or that they were the same thing.  Although I have taken photography, I didn’t know how to fully function my Nikon D90.  In the manual, it says to use the back dial in shutter mode to alter, which I was and just assumed that it was working.  It wasn’t until our last assignment that I figured out that my shutter button is only manual when my camera is in LV mode.  This opened up a whole new and more understandable world to me!  Now that I have figured out how to differentiate between the two, I am on my way to being able to truly manipulate and achieve the effects I want in due time.  After reading the book about ISO settings, it stated the lower the ISO, the brighter the picture.  I tried to start at the high ISO and work my way down but I didn’t really have the option when trying to capture two year olds playing in the leaves.  Instead of going down the latter with every setting like my previous assignments, I shot from the hip and changed the settings when I had a second.  I think ISO 200 was the best lighting with the most clear pictures but to experiment for the assignment I altered it for every picture to see a change and get the idea of how to function my camera properly. 

This ISO was set at 3200 and the goal was to scale down and take a picture until I got to the lowest setting.  I put my camera in P mode and adjusted the camera as fast as I could.  Although this is a high setting, the lighting was good that day.

This image was set at 200 because I wanted to see if there was a difference in the lighting from the last setting of 3200.  I can't really see the difference in the lighting of the two but I kept experimenting until I did.

I tried to hurry and scale my ISO back down to get a good shot.  I also wanted alter the shutter to get the leaves falling and the aperture to make the little girl stand out of the background more.

 

This is set at 500 and the aperture at 5.  Although it was bit higher than 200, it still had a clear shot.  I believe my shots are bright because the sun was directly to the side and behind me. 

I went back to ISO 200 for this one and it came out brighter and more vivid.

I left the setting at 200 because I was getting such good shots and the kids were loving the nice weather and throwing leaves.  I never have time to set up shots and sometimes I think this is my downfall because I'm experienced to think fast enough.

I wasn't seeing a huge difference in my shots so I spiked this setting up to 1000 and faced a different direction.  This gave me a darker front subject and light background. 

This teacher was having so much fun that I kept shooting her until she was done.  This one is a tad lighter but still darker than to 200 and 500 settings.

Again, this shot is dark due to the high ISO 1600.  I did brighten in Photoshop a little bit, it was darker and definitley not a clear or bright shot. 

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I was so worried about getting my narrative in on time that I forgot to upload the pictures to accompany it.  The photos labeled 2,3,4 are my favorites because I meant to reach that effect.  My goal was to keep Hiram in focus while trying to show he was moving at the same time.  The photo #11 is one of my favorites as well but I got lucky on that one.  I need to invest in a tripod ASAP!