Search for Colour

The second classical sign of photographic infection is colour. This is the Latin word that means what something isn’t. By this I mean isn’t right, isn’t enough, and isn’t real.

You will find two commands on your digital camera that deal with colour; white balance and colour space. You can safely ignore the latter as it cannot be successfully explained to a sane person (Though some religions promise a revelation after death.) but you must deal with the former every time you operate the camera.

Auto is a good menu choice for most of the time as it delivers the three criteria that we mentioned at the start – not right, not enough, and not real. In good conditions it can deliver the goods and wait for a signature.

Shade and Cloudy are also useful menu settings when the sun is not visible. Cameras intended for use in the Ruhr and Beijing are also equipped with Vile and Hideous as menus settings to deal with local atmospheric conditions.

Mixed lighting is best met by turning the control to Impossible. Many modern cameras also have a setting that allows you to make your own decision and it can be identified by either the letter K or the letters AG. The K stands for Kelvin and the AG stands for Anybody’s Guess. The latter is the more 

accurate.

In the end these settings can all be overridden by the sliders on the RAW processing engine. In its turn this is generally overridden by the wife’s opinion on what the colour should be. Wise photographers will pay attention to this.