Introduction to White Balance for Digital Camera Users (Part III): Gray Card or White Card?

In the last week I received many emails asking which is better for measuring white balance accurately via a digital camera, a white card or a gray card, so I'm adding an unexpected Part III to my series on White Balance. (Part I, Part II)

Without knowing it, they've asked a question which has an technical answer, though not one they're expecting, and an unexpected practical answer too.

Let's go back to Part I of the series and review what white balance is:

"White balance is the process of adjusting color casts, so that objects which appear white to human eyes/brains are rendered white in the photograph by the camera."

To put it more simply, photographers set a digital camera's white balance to get the colors in images “right,” where the images' colors are what photographers' brains tell them their eyes are seeing.

Philadelphia Police Apparently Need Remedial "First Amendment" Education

On the night of March 14, 2012, Temple University photojournalism student Ian Van Kuyk was arrested outside his residence while taking pictures of uniformed Philadelphia policemen performing what has been termed a “routine traffic stop.”

Van Kuyk, who was with his girlfriend who was also arrested, said he was never closer than ten feet of the scene when police ordered him back. He said he voluntarily backed up and was at least thirty feet away when a uniformed Philadelphia police officer approached him aggressively demanding he stop taking pictures. Van Kuyk stated he politely told the officer he was a Temple University photojournalism student, and within his rights to be taking photos on a public street.

Introduction to White Balance for Digital Camera Users (Part II)

Last week, in Part I, I discussed the concept of white balance and defined it. The general idea of white balance is to get objects which appear white to human eyes/brains to be rendered white in your images, so the rest of the colors will render properly as well.

I also discussed the important concept that sometimes, things we consider to be “white” aren't always white when we look at them, and that it's not wrong to ensure they don't look white in our images. During the “golden hours,” for example, white can appear “golden.” At sunset white buildings can take on red and golden hues.

This week I'm going to discuss the practical side of getting your white balance “right,” or at least as “right” as you can get it, so the colors in your saved image are rendered as you saw them.

Photography Exhibition: The National Portrait Gallery - In Vibrant Color: Vintage Celebrity Portraits from the Harry Warnecke Studio

Periodically the National Portrait Gallery has some incredible photographic portrait exhibitions. In Vibrant Color: Vintage Celebrity Portraits from the Harry Warnecke Studio is such an exhibition.

This exhibition will run through September 9, 2012

Introduction to White Balance for Digital Camera Users (Part I)

I'm often asked about white balance by travelers using digital cameras who periodically have a noticeable and sometimes severe color cast on their travel photos. More often than not I'm queried about what white balance actually is, why “auto white balance” doesn't work, and how to get the color rendition of a scene “right.”

It turns out that white balance is a difficult term to define for most people. Here's my try.

White balance is the process of adjusting color casts, so that objects which appear white to human eyes/brains are rendered white in the photograph by the camera.

I'm sure you're asking what the heck that means.

Photography is all about light. If we examine light, which from the sun appears white to our eyes, we find it's made up of a whole spectrum of colors, each with its own color temperature which describes its individual color. Cameras need the ability to render the colors of scenes as the human eye sees them, and that isn't necessarily easy.

Photography Exhibition: The Museum of Modern Art - Eugène Atget:“Documents pour artistes”

The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), in New York, NY has some of the most amazing exhibitions of contemporary photography in the US. Eugène Atget: “Documents pour artistes” is another in a long line of great exhibitions. If you’re in the New York City area, don’t miss this exhibition.

The exhibition will run from February 6 through April 9, 2012.

Tell your Senators and Representative to not support proposed Anti-Piracy legislation SOPA and PIPA

Today, across the Internet, many have darkened their websites in protest of the pending Anti-Piracy legislation in the US Senate and House of Representatives. Others are presenting statements and editorials explaining their serious objections to this new legislation, as currently written.

As a professional photographer, I take my work, copyright issues, and piracy of copyrighted work, mine and that of others, very, very seriously. Theft of copyrighted material, photographs, drawings, film, video, music, art, the written word, and creative ideas made public through various means, is very serious business.

I believe that more must be done to protect the creative products of human minds. Without it, those who create such work will be unable to make a living as others unfairly steal their hard work and genius. Without protection, creativity will be stifled and the world will loose much which makes human endeavors great.

That being said, the current pending Anti-Piracy legislation is heavy handed, a dangerous assault on free speech and the constitution, wrong thinking, and will stifle creativity by putting too much power in those hands who have cash in their pocket. It will hand over great power to a few companies and organizations who have large resources, over who gets to exercise creativity, and cause independent artists, artisans, and authors, to be lost in a sea of cash they don't have, in my opinion.

The Anti-Piracy bills, if enacted into law would violate the First Amendment, illegally censor Internet content, and cripple the Internet, while threatening whistle-blowing and other free speech actions.

It's one thing to go after websites which are allegedly directly involved in copyright infringement, but the proposed bills would allow the government to target sites that merely provide information which could help users get around the proposed law's censorship provisions. That amounts to unconstitutional prior restraint against protected speech, and, in my opinion would severely damage online innovation.

Social media sites like Facebook, Google Plus, or YouTube, sites with user generated content, would be especially vulnerable to proposed law. They would have to expend huge amounts of their resources to police their sites for copyright violations, as these new PIPA and SOPA proposals make them liable for the uploads from you and me, which might be copyright violations. Venture capitalists have said, en masse, they won’t invest in new online startups if the legislation passes, as it would be likely that under the new law, new companies couldn't be successful, due to the onerous liability and capital requirements required.

Talk about damaging the potential for innovation, something these bills are supposed to enable, but don't!

Worse yet, the proposed laws would decimate the open source software community. This would be tragic for those who love freedom and liberty. Anyone who writes or distributes VPN, proxy, privacy or anonymization software would be immediate targets of the proposed laws. This would even include organizations funded by the US State Department to create software which helps democratic activists get past authoritarian regimes’ online censorship mechanisms. It's ironic that the proposals would replicate the same practices as these regimes, and outlaw the tools used by activists to circumvent censorship in countries like Iran, Syria and China.

Then there is the provision in these laws which would grant broad immunity to all service providers, even if they overblock innocent users, by blocking sites voluntarily with no judicial oversight. Since the proposed law's standard for immunity is so low, as to be beyond any reasonable thought, with the potential for abuse “off the charts,” these service providers need only act “in good faith” (vaguely defined) and base their decision “on credible evidence” (extremely vague) to receive immunity from prosecution or civil suit.

The proposed law would allow big business associations like MPAA and RIAA to create site blacklists of competitors and independents to shut them down, even if the evidence was bogus. Intermediaries would be under enormous financial pressure to accede to shutdown demands to avoid court orders. This gives outrageous censorship powers without any judicial or legal oversight to big business. Independent creators and purveyors of creativity would have a difficult or impossible fight against this, due to the huge financial resources of the corporations they would be pitted against. Anti-competitive and anti-trust laws would be of no help in this fight.

The proposed law would give the US Attorney General new authority to block domain name services (DNS), a provision that has been universally criticized by Internet security experts and First Amendment scholars. Even the blacklist bills’ authors are now publicly second-guessing that provision. The problem here is that the methods used to accomplish this task, something that China currently uses to censor the Internet available to their citizens, would make the Internet in the US even more vulnerable to hacking and piracy than it already is, and ironically like other provisions of the proposed law, that is part of what it is supposed to stop.

Finally, the proposed law circumvents a pillar of American justice, that everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty, beyond a reasonable doubt. Under the proposed Anti-Piracy legislation, it's like the old Soviet Union, where you were guilty unless you prove yourself innocent, beyond a reasonable doubt.

Once accused of piracy or copyright infringement, under the proposed law, your work product, your photos, movies, music, etc. can be removed, stopping all marketing of your products and all sales. Moreover, restoration won't occur until you prove it's yours and there was no piracy or copyright infringement. During that time, the fight to prove your innocence will cost a bundle, and you'll be unable to draw an income from your work.

All copyright holders already have a reasonable mechanism to halt infringement and recover damages, both statutory and actual, via the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and having used it myself, I can tell you, it works, though it could use some improvements.

That being said, neither PIPA nor SOPA are the answer. These are dangerous pieces of legislation and must be stopped. Please, contact your Senators and Representative in Congress and tell them to vote against these bills and write legislation which reasonably and constitutionally work to help creative Americans, not put them at risk or at the mercy of big business. Tell them to not put the Internet, content providers and ordinary Americans at risk to hackers and thieves.

Tell your legislators the law they write must not deprive Americans of our basic human rights.

Have a Happy and Healthy New Year

May this new year bring you health, happiness, and the sweetest of years possible.

I hope everyone's travels are without incident, that cruises make it to every port, that planes and trains arrive safely and early, that road trips have no accidents or flats, and that everyone enjoys their travels safely, see amazing sights, and enjoy and learn about the new people met and the cultures encountered.

I hope that everyone creates the best photographic memories possible of their travels, that every exposure is in sharp focus, with a perfect exposure, and with brilliant color.

Shooting new year's fireworks in frigid climates

In Frostbite Falls they love their cold winters. Rocky and Bullwinkle never miss their cold weather new year's fireworks shows, but they recognize that there are special problems taking fireworks photos when it's below freezing.

For new year's fireworks in frigid climates you have to combine good practices for cold weather photography, with those for night photography, and the special things necessary to capture fireworks, to be successful. Don't be intimidated if you don't have a DSLR. I've seen many wonderful firework's photos taken with quality digital point and shoot cameras.