White Balance Shooting Assignment

Overview:
This assignment will allow you to explore White Balance as you shoot. You’ll need to discover how to access the White Balance function in your camera’s manual. This will require a little bit of research on your part. You will be shooting three of the same photographs, but changing the white balance function with each shot to be able to review the difference.
Look up the white balance feature in your manual to see how to find how it can be accessed and adjusted.
Instructions:
Before Shooting:
Look in your camera’s manual to find out how to access the white balance feature. In most situations, the AUTO function will be a really great way to allow you to get the best white balance in camera, but sometimes you may need to adjust the white balance to get a better result.
What other white balance settings does your camera have? Most cameras will have the following white balance options (or similar ones)
AUTO
Daylight
Fluorescent
Tungsten
Flash
Cloudy
Shade
What settings does your camera have?
Set Up Your Shot:
Shoot during the day (not at night and do not use your flash) and use a tripod or find a place to secure your camera so you can shoot multiple images without moving the camera
Find a daytime outside scene that you would like to shoot that contains an average amount of contrast (a foggy morning isn’t the best time to shoot for this assignment, nor is shooting at night or a scene where a flash is needed)
Use good compositional tools like the rule of thirds or frame within a frame or the golden ratio
Set up your camera on a tripod or other stable surface like a picnic table, set of books, etc.
Set ISO to 100 or 200 for this scene
Shoot in JPG image quality
Shoot Six or Seven Images (depending on your white balance options) Without Moving the Camera:
When shooting, note aperture and shutter speed. You will be creating six or seven photographs of the same scene with the same exposure for each image, but changing the white balance.
Keep the exposure the same for each shot as long as the light doesn’t change drastically between shots.
Set camera to AUTO White Balance
Meter off of the scene and find the meter reading that gives you an average meter reading
note exposure
Shoot the photograph
Change White Balance to Daylight
Shoot the photograph
Change White Balance to Cloudy
Shoot the photograph
Change White Balance to Fluorescent
Shoot the photograph
Change White Balance to Tungsten
Shoot the photograph
Change White Balance to Flash
Shoot the photograph
Change White Balance to Shade
Shoot the photograph
If your camera has any other White Balance settings, shoot using those
Post Process the Images:
No need to adjust exposure or contrast or burn and dodge in Photoshop for this assignment as long as the images have an average exposure.
Open all three images in Photoshop and place them in a grid using the technique from this week’s demonstration.
use the guide in the demo video for guidance
Use the text tool to label ISO, aperture and shutter speed and label each image with the White Balance setting that was used
Flatten the file and resize it to 12″ or 15″ wide at 150 dpi
Save file as a jpg
Submit Your Images and a Reflection:
Submit your file containing all images in a grid with white balance and exposure information
Submit a reflection of about 150 words that addresses:
Describes how your images change with each white balance adjustment
What did you see happen to image as you adjusted the white balance?
How did you make the image visually interesting?
What compositional tools are being used and how?
What elements and principles of design are being used and how?
What WB setting was the best for your image and why?

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