Advent Day 7

I got one santa mug from my Grandma and I've collected a few over the years to go along with it.  Every year I try to display them differently and in a fun sort of way.  This year I stacked four of them into a vase with some old ornaments.  

Techie camera stuff - This was shot with the overhead livingroom light and the diningroom light, no flash since there was enough front and overhead light.  You can see the two lights in the bulbs, the gold one at the very top and the blue one on the bottom right you can see the fan blades moving making a star pattern.  There is a orange glow middle right from our pellet stove, that is the only back lighting which can make for horrible color if you let it. (more on that below)  I used an f1.2 and a ISO of 1600, my shutter speed was 1/25 which is too slow to hand hold but I braced myself against the couch and took a deep breath.  I could have upped my ISO to move that shutter up to at least 1/50 or get out my tripod but let's just say I was lazy and went for it.

Here is what I mean by the pellet stove orange glow.  This is the photo taken in Auto White Balance.

This is the photo taken in Tungsten Lighting.  This is your normal light bulbs so this should have been a perfect match, but not with that pellet stove adding a glow.  

Here I did a Custom White Balance.  Meaning I programed my camera to tell it what white looked like under this lighting condition.  

You can see the glow of the pellet stove in all 3 photos and you can see how that color changes as well as the color of the bulbs and especially the white.  The only photo that is white is the bottom one where I told it what white was.  Auto White Balance is pretty close but the white still isn't white.  When I learned how to program my camera for Custom White Balance it was the coolest thing I learned and the easiest thing to do.  Just don't forget to take it out of Custom when your done or the next time you pick up your camera for that once in a lifetime photo it will be ruined with horrible color.  

If you are interested in learning how to Custom White Balance let me know I'd be glad to teach you.