[InaGlo]

Tried taking some head-shots last night...wouldnt dare call them portraits, lol!
I used a single 500 watt security light and changed my white balance to tungsten on both my Canons. My bro did the same on his little S5600.
The skintones in his pics were far superior to mine on both my Canons.
Anybody got any advice on how to improve my shots or can point me to any info here.

[SammyC]

What Canons have you got?

[InaGlo]

Ok...please dont judge me on the cameras, I jumped from one extreme to the other and I admit, I'm feeling somewhat out of my depth on my new DSLR, lol!
I have my trusty old G5 and my spanking new (having a ball but havent a clue) 5D.
The lens on the 5D is the 28-105 f/3.5-4.5. I was thinking of changing the lens but as Im a total newbie, thought it may be best to just hang on to the cheap glass until I have a feel my feet and gain a bit more knowledge, what do you think...uh oh...theres another question there for you, lol!

[SammyC]

Well no judging going on, it justhelps to know what we're dealing with first.

I can't help you with the G5 but 5D will be similar to my 350D.

Regarding white balance on the 5D you probably want to do a custom white balance. This involves taking a photo of a piece of white paper so that it fully fills the frame and then telling the camera that that previous photo is white. If you read about custom white balance in the manual it'll give you a better how to than that.

BTW, if thats the Ultrasonic 25-105 then you have a pretty decent lens there. Ok, not L glass standards but personally I was impressed with it when I tried it.

[InaGlo]

Many thanx for your help, I have much to learn.
Ill do the custom white balance/white paper exercise (and get the manual back out)

[CT]

Here you go Gal... CLICK

As Sammy said, the custom white balance is your best option if you're shooting jpegs. If you shoot RAW then you don't have to set WB at all as it can be sorted in post processing.

The problem with manufacturers Tungsten settings is they all have different firmware interpreting WB and different ideas about how to do it. It's seldom ideal with any of them.

A better option is to set WB by degrees Kelvin as it's an absolute colour temperature value. If I set the lowest Kelvin setting of 2800, I find it just about ideal for tungsten light with no messing about. Try that setting ...you can always adjust upwards.

5D ! Woohoo - very nice!

[InaGlo]

Thanx for the link CT

[CT]

My pleasure and my privilege.

Try the Kelvin WB. Go into the menu on the rear screen and wind Kelvin (Colour Temp) down to it's lowest value. It has absolutely no effect on your pics wherever it's set unless you also select Kelvin as the WB setting on the top screen, so do that now - (it's the 'K' symbol) Go on try it, see how it turns out.