Here are two simple camera settings that can make an astounding difference in picture quality, but that tend to scare users because of their technical names.

Get to know your Camera

Changing the settings sounds complicated because the terminology is foreign. But, physically changing the settings is really quite simple.

White Balance

White balance is simply a set of filters to block out the yellow of indoor light bulbs, the blue of outdoor sunshine, or the green of fluorescent bulbs - and it is typically denoted with icons like a sun or lightbulb. Below are some of the most common options. Some cameras have many more.

If the camera is set for the wrong kind of lighting, the pictures will be tinted the wrong color. You can see that tinting when shooting against a white background. If your whites are some other color instead of white, look to your white balance setting and choose a different icon. If the white background is gray, then the color is probably ok, but the exposure is off (see exposure compensation).

The camera can be set for one type or color of light, but it doesn't know how to adjust for mixed light. It is always important to set the camera for the type of light you are using, and to avoid mixing different types of light that introduce different colors. If light sources are mixed, like overhead fluorescents with lamp light, or window light with lamps, every shot may turn out a different color, depending on which light source is reflected back by the object.

Exposure Compensation

The other common setting problem is exposure compensation.  You can detect exposure problems if your white background looks gray or if your black items look washed out. The camera reads the brightness of the entire scene, and will compensate accordingly. To over-ride the camera, there are plus and minus numbers that you can set more positive to make the photo lighter, or that you can set to a negative number to darken the photo.

So if you have a white item on a white background, the camera will try to darken the scene. This is confusing because the photo looks like there is not enough light, and people tend to feel they need to add more light. That simply worsens the problem by making the scene even brighter, and the camera will again darken the image. Instead, you probably don't really need as much light as you thought, and the solution is to set EV to a more positive number to create a brighter photo.

The examples to the right of the EV chart above are just starting points that you might try. Experiment with the numbers to find what EV number works best with your subject and background combination.

An alternative to adjusting your EV setting is to change the background to something like a light or mid gray and step back or forward to get the right balance of darks and lights in the photo. eBay member dainisjg created an example of fooling the camera this way by changing the amount of dark and light background in the scene, which eBay member CameraJim placed on his tutorial page: Cameras, Controls & Settings for eBay Photography.

 

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