Otis and I took an early morning stroll. It was very sunny out, so I thought it would be quite pleasant. I step outside, close me eyes, and prepare to bask in the morning sunlight.
Then a giant gust of wind hit me. The cold breath of Satan.
I’m having a hard time coming up with a proper metaphor to describe the low temperature of this wind. Not quite as cold as the dead of space. Definitely several degrees below “witch’s titty.” I’m going to go with balls. It was definitely cold as balls.
But Otis and I soldiered on through the chilled breeze and walked about the yard. We stopped at this bench so Otis could do some deep corgi thinking. I’m not sure a corgi has ever thunk as deeply as Otis think’d this morn. My little airplane is growing up.
The Syllabi
Finally, a tumblr that digitally enhances everyone’s favorite learning keystone, the syllabus.
The syllabi aims to “help the curious reader fully understand a topic” by providing comprehensive reading lists on topics like The Science of Mysteries, The Wisdom of Crowds, and Culture-Bound Syndromes.
But unlike your average learning document, each post is filled with links, and directions to a reading that will lead your mind forward.
Great idea.
Photography Tip — White Balance
If you look at the image above, it has an orangish haze to it. No matter how good or bad your camera is, the camera cannot always guess the proper white balance. This is especially true in mixed lighting and warm incandescent lighting. Sometimes you need to tell your camera what white is in order for it to accurately capture the color information. If white has a color cast to it, the entire picture will too.
A cool trick to fix this problem is to get a grey card. It is calibrated to be 18% gray and because it has a fixed color value, you can use it to correct your white balance. I got the WhiBal card.
Just put this card in the same light as your subject and then you can color correct all your shots with a few clicks later on.
This works best if you are shooting in RAW, but I will tell you how to do it with JPEG point & shoots later on.
First I took some pictures of Otis relaxin’ in his pen. Then I dropped the gray card in the same light.
If you are doing portraits you can ask your subject to hold the card. Or you can stand it up in the same spot. If you are outside you can just hold it in front of the camera and snap a picture. Just make sure it is taking on the same lighting as your other pictures.
Once I have all the files loaded onto my computer, I find them in Adobe Bridge and select all the pictures that were in that lighting. I right click and open them in Adobe Camera RAW. I go to the picture with the gray card and then I hit “select all” on the top left. Then I choose the white balance tool and simply click on the gray card in the picture.
Since all pictures were selected, they will all have their white balance adjusted simultaneously. The orange color cast disappears and you can proceed with further edits of your pictures knowing you have accurate colors.
If your camera only shoots JPEG, this technique will not be as effective. Instead you should navigate through your camera’s menu and find the custom white balance feature. Some cameras allow you to meter the white balance live in the viewfinder, some require you to take a picture of the gray card and then determine the white balance. Put the gray card in the same light you will be shooting, fill as much of the frame with it as you can, and then use that to calibrate your custom white balance. If you do not have a gray card, a white sheet of paper works as well.
It feels like magic, but I’m pretty sure it is just color science.
