Creative Exposure
Once again, it’s a due date for one of Scott’s photo challenges and here I am traveling and sliding in at the last minute with my entry! Of course, you could say that I should just be more prepared but then I would say where is the fun in that?
The good news is that I did actually take pictures for this challenge long before the deadline during our Mystic trip. Because I have a point and shoot camera, I did as Scott recommended and tried out some of the scene selections. We went to Mystic Aquarium and my camera actually has an aquarium setting on it. I am not quite sure what Canon thinks the lighting conditions are inside an aquarium, but I pretty quickly decided that it wasn’t doing much for me. I decided to try a different mode for lower light and chose ISO3200 instead. I have to say that I got some pretty interesting results. There is definitely some noise, but I really like the way the colors came out in these shots.
The next picture is of the same scene as above but I didn’t change the setting on the camera – the lighting in the tank changes periodically to highlight flourescent sea life.
Back home, I decided to experiment with the various white balance settings. I took a close up of this iris first on auto white balance and I thought it looked too blue.
So, I went through the rest of the settings…
Flourescent H (whatever that means) actually came pretty close to the right shade of purple. But, I saved the best for last; what the camera calls Custom/Evaluate White Balance. Which sounds the same as auto, but it’s not exactly. When you first tap the shutter button, it has a little metering spot in the frame so you can select exactly what area in the photo you want it to evaluate the light from. And, we have a winner:
For ha-ha’s and to copy my sister, I also tried out the continuous shooting mode on my dog, but those pictures came out pretty blurry, if not kind of funny! That little sucker moves fast!
So, thanks to Scott for getting me to experiment a bit with my camera. I feel like I did begin to know it’s capabilities quite a bit more through this assignment.
Bread & Putter 
Hi Jennifer. You have made a lot of interesting experiments, the aquarium photos are fine, and the white balance test interesting. The photos of your dog is nice, showing how fun it is, to run for a ball. I don´t mind they are a bit blurred.
That’s a pretty cool setting on the “custom/evaluate white balance” – I like that. That is a frustration of mine with getting colors like reds and purples just right in the viewfinder.
The colors in those top three shots are amazing!
Our cameras think alike–or in the case of mine, thought. This may be dangerous. I don’t believe inanimate objects should do a lot of thinking.
In any case, you gave me some good ideas to try when I have the replacement in my paws. It was ingenious to make that reference collage. Very interesting – and beautiful – results.
Thank you very much for the feedback, everyone!
Gerry – the collage was actually a last minute plan because I was concerned this post was going to get way too long and boring if I posted each one separately. But in the end, I was really happy with it as a method of comparing the shots side by side.
Jenifer, how fantastic that you have an “aquarium” setting on your camera! That is incredible. I am envious and wish my point-n-shoot had one as well. When we went to the aquarium in Duluth last summer my photos looked more…experimental…than professional. Isn’t it fun to try all the different settings? (And thanks for visiting my blog!)
I am impressed with the ISO3200 on your camera. Mind telling us your model? You might look into getting some noise reduction software like Noise Ninja or deFine to clean those photos up. The colors are great.
I use a custom White Balance a lot. Really gives the best colors as long as the light doesn’t change like when the lighting switched on you in the tank.
Scott, it is a Canon SX12o IS. I just got it this February and I am really pleased with it so far. Much better capabilities than my old Sony. Thanks for the suggestions on the noise reduction software – I will have to look into those.
That first one is SO cool! Great capture!
I like your white balance experiment, too, and agree that fluorescent H looks the best. The colors are nice and rich. Cloudy comes close, too, but looks a little washed out.
I love the photos of your dog, look almost like water color. 🙂