How do you shoot

[starbucks]

When you're taking pictures inside or outside of your child, do you shoot in standard, portrait or natural mode? I want to have more natural tones, but not exactly sure which I should using from my menu area.

TY

[SusanH1970]

If you're looking for natural tones, it's white balance that you should be working on. My Canon has standard, portrait, landscape, etc. modes; most of the time I leave it on standard. Occasionally I've put it on portrait - haven't really seen a huge difference, though. I use an 18% grey card for expsosure, usually spot meter, and shoot in manual and adjust the ISO, aperture and shutter speed until the meter reads 0. I also use a Digital Grey Kard for custom white balance.

Hope this helps!

[cphoniball]

As far as I know (I don't really use those modes) the portrait, sports, etc. modes don't adjust white balance (could very well be wrong, consult the manual), and Susan is right that that's what you want to worry about if you're looking for natural tones. DPS has a good article on what white balance is. If you're looking for natural tones either set the camera to whatever kind of light you're in or, if you want to be more exact, purchase a gray card and use that to set white balance.

Getting proper exposure is also helpful, because if you over/under expose it can definitely mess up the tones even after some photoshop. Not sure what time of camera you're using but if you have spot metering set your camera to that and take a reading off your subjects face to get proper exposure. Again, if you don't know what types of metering there are, DPS has a great article on them.

Hope that wasn't too technical...

[SusanH1970]

Originally Posted by cphoniball

As far as I know (I don't really use those modes) the portrait, sports, etc. modes don't adjust white balance (could very well be wrong, consult the manual),

I could be wrong, but I don't think the OP was talking about the auto shooting modes - I think it's the "picture style" in the menu (that's what it's called on a Canon, anyway). You can set your camera to auto, portrait, sports, or AV, TV or manual, and still be able to set the picture style to one of those modes. Looking at my camera now, it's got:

Standard, portrait, landscape, neutral, faithful, monochrome, and then there are 3 "user define" spots if you want to download additional styles from the Canon website.

Does this make any sense or am I just rambling on? lol

[cphoniball]

Originally Posted by SusanH1970

I could be wrong, but I don't think the OP was talking about the auto shooting modes - I think it's the "picture style" in the menu (that's what it's called on a Canon, anyway). You can set your camera to auto, portrait, sports, or AV, TV or manual, and still be able to set the picture style to one of those modes. Looking at my camera now, it's got:

Standard, portrait, landscape, neutral, faithful, monochrome, and then there are 3 "user define" spots if you want to download additional styles from the Canon website.

Does this make any sense or am I just rambling on? lol

Ah no, that makes sensem and now that you say it it appears you're correct. "Portrait" is both a picture style and an auto shooting mode (on my camera, anyway) thus the confusion. My mind skipped the "natural" in the first post for some reason.

Outside:
AV mode, with typically a very low f-stop (I shoot around f2.0 with my Sigma 50mm). Focus on the eyes and let the camera pick the shutter speed and ISO. If you're getting dark shadows, use the on-camera flash, but set the flash exposure compensation (in your menu) to -2 or so...this'll add some light to the shadows but not over-power the sun. Set the white balance to sun or cloudy.

Inside:
Same as outside, unless you have an external flash unit. Adjust the white balance depending on what kind of lights you have around. If you have a flash unit:

Manual mode, with the shutter speed set to 1/80th or so and the f-stop pretty low. Adjust the ISO to expose the background, not the subject...lower the ISO, the darker the background. Set the flash to ETTL and bounce it off a wall or ceiling...the whiter the better. Set the WB to flash.

If you don't get the white balance right, Picasa or Lightroom will do a really good job in correcting that. I use bounce flash a lot, and sometimes you don't have a great option to bounce off of, and it affects the color.

On a humorous note, the last time I photographed a bartender for the newspaper, I had a patron in a white shirt stand next to me. I told him to close his eyes and I bounced the flash off his shirt. And if you look really close in the bartenders eyes, you can see the reflection of a totally blown out drunk guy.

[SusanH1970]

Originally Posted by Photoboothguy

On a humorous note, the last time I photographed a bartender for the newspaper, I had a patron in a white shirt stand next to me. I told him to close his eyes and I bounced the flash off his shirt. And if you look really close in the bartenders eyes, you can see the reflection of a totally blown out drunk guy.

ROFLMAO!!!!!!

By the way, great idea. I usually wear a white shirt on shoots to reflect light into the subjects' eyes.

[VegasMike]

Originally Posted by SusanH1970

If you're looking for natural tones, it's white balance that you should be working on. My Canon has standard, portrait, landscape, etc. modes; most of the time I leave it on standard. Occasionally I've put it on portrait - haven't really seen a huge difference, though. I use an 18% grey card for expsosure, usually spot meter, and shoot in manual and adjust the ISO, aperture and shutter speed until the meter reads 0. I also use a Digital Grey Kard for custom white balance.

Hope this helps!

Susan, the grey card thing confuses me. I have one, but where to you place it to get your reading? Hope I'm not hijacking the thread.

Mike

[SusanH1970]

Mike, just have your subject hold it while you set your camera for exposure. Easy peasy! If it's a baby or really young toddler, I'll just prop it near them.

Originally Posted by SusanH1970

ROFLMAO!!!!!!

By the way, great idea. I usually wear a white shirt on shoots to reflect light into the subjects' eyes.

Here's the photo, zoomed to the eyes (the attachement is showing up strange, but you get the idea):