Adjusting exposure and white balance.

[Karloss]

How will adjusting the exposure and white balance affect the color of pictures or will it?

 

[smoore]

It will. If a picture is overexposed, then the colours will be washed out and if under-exposed, then the colours will be muted.

White balance is critical to the appearance of colours. To get a better idea of how just Google "white balance in photography". If the white balance is not correct, then none of your colours will be accurate. If you shoot in RAW you can adjust the white balance when you process the pictures in Photoshop.

 

[bvanant]

Here are three pics. One is mostly properly exposed and white balanced, one has a crappy white balance and one is overexposed.

Bill

 

[Karloss]

OK....ah.... mine came out, what I would call, dull or not as vivid as I remember it being. I am guessing the dullness is what one would call muted? So what I am taking out of this is I just need to take pictures and change settings until I get good at it. Thanks for both the comments. All I have is a point and shoot but it does have exposure settings and white balance.

 

[CT Sean]

If you post the pic in question people can give much better input as to what the issues may be. I'm guessing it's a bit blue and a bit dark?

You may also want to do a little searching on what white balance and exposure (which is the "sum" of aperture, ISO and shutter speed) actually mean. Underwater, cameras are, at best, mediocre at determining shot settings. Your brain, on the other hand, is excellent at determining what color everything should be and how bright it should be. Hence the dramatic difference you see between a photograph and actually looking at something.

 

[BluewaterPhoto]

Dull and muted photos are often from using auto-mode or P mode instead of getting light from your strobes / flash. Read this article on getting good color and see if it helps! - Scott

 

[Osric]

OK....ah.... mine came out, what I would call, dull or not as vivid as I remember it being. I am guessing the dullness is what one would call muted? So what I am taking out of this is I just need to take pictures and change settings until I get good at it. Thanks for both the comments. All I have is a point and shoot but it does have exposure settings and white balance.

With a point&shoot you'll need flash/strobes/lighting of some kind. You can only get good results without lights if you shoot RAW on a reasonable sensor.

Osric

 

[Karloss]

Thanks Bluewater and Osric, that is exactly what I'm doing. I'm shooting in P mode with auto flash which is diffused on my Olympic TG-1. Sounds like I need to get a strobe THEN start to worry about white balance and exposure. Thanks alot.