How To Warm Up Cool Photographs

They say “Just point and shoot. Digital cameras do all the work.” The more expensive the camera, the better the photos I get, right? Wrong!

You can take great photos even with a simple consumer point-and-shoot camera, or take simply awful shots with the most expensive digital camera. It’s not the camera that makes beautiful photos; it’s the photographer. Period. With knowledge and color correction, a lot can be done to enhance your photos.

Why Do My Photos Look So Dreary?

Have you ever noticed that your shots sometimes have a cool, clammy feel to them? The default white balance setting for digital cameras is auto, which is fine for most snapshots.

The human eye is pretty amazing at adjusting colors so we perceive that, for example, a white sheet of paper is white under the glare of midday sun or the indoors under office florescent lighting. Use a typical camera to shoot the same thing and the paper will most likely look yellow or even green in the indoor florescent shot.

How do you get good shots?

When shooting outdoor portraits and sunny landscapes, try changing your white balance setting from ‘auto’ to ‘cloudy’. Why? This adjustment is like putting a mild warming filter on your camera. It increases the reds and yellows resulting in richer, warmer pictures.

Indoor photography, like the image above, is even more challenging. The simplest solution for most portrait and product shots…shoot outside or with lighting from a large window. If that is impossible then a single brand or at least type of bulb will give you a more uniform color source.

Of course if always getting a good shot was easy there wouldn’t be professionals with thousands of dollars worth of equipment. Bower Web Solutions can provide reasonably priced professional quality photography as part of your web development package.