White dog: I have been trying to get some good pics of my all white dog. They are usually washed out. I have tried my white balance on cloudy. Any suggestions what will help ? I have a...

CharleneT Loc: South Carolina

I have been trying to get some good pics of my all white dog. They are usually washed out. I have tried my white balance on cloudy. Any suggestions what will help ? I have a Nikon d3200 with a kit lens. Should I try setting the white balance on sunny?

rwilson1942 Loc: Houston, TX

The issue is not with white balance but exposure. Try using center weighted exposure, not sure what Nikon calls it, and use live view to adjust the EV to get a good exposure on the dog, if live view changes with EV changes that is. It seems like I read some where that some Nikon cameras don't do that. Another option is to display the histogram in the viewfinder and adjust EV until you are not clipping the whites (right end of histogram). I hope this helps.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

CharleneT wrote:

I have been trying to get some good pics of my all white dog. They are usually washed out. I have tried my white balance on cloudy. Any suggestions what will help ? I have a Nikon d3200 with a kit lens. Should I try setting the white balance on sunny?

I've seen lots of articles about taking pictures of white dogs in the sun, and about the same thing goes for black dogs. In addition to what you get here, try Google.

http://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=photographing%20white%20dogs

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

The EV mentioned above is exposure compensation, one way to over-ride what the camera is measuring for light. If the dog is "washed out," you are probably shooting in high contrast light and the camera is metering on the dark areas. Also please know that if a scene is mostly black or mostly white (your dog in snow?), the camera tries to push everything to gray.

Awhile back someone suggested you purchase Bryan Peterson's "Understanding Exposure."
Understanding the basics of exposure will help you immeasurably in all your photography interests. This will also help you with aperture choices (another of your earlier topics) and shutter speed.

Regarding how your particular camera measures the light: check your manual for information on metering.

Most often, leaving the white balance on auto will suit your needs just fine. Here is an article on white balance:
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/white-balance.htm

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

CharleneT wrote:

I have been trying to get some good pics of my all white dog. They are usually washed out. I have tried my white balance on cloudy. Any suggestions what will help ? I have a Nikon d3200 with a kit lens. Should I try setting the white balance on sunny?

Try the following.

Set the meter mode to spot, aperture priority. Turn auto iso off.
If you are outside, set iso to 200, aperture to F8.
Dial in 1-1/3 stop plus compensation. Not doing this will result in a gray dog.
At first, shoot a picture with the dog fully covered by the spot meter area.
If the image looks good (dog not washed out), take note of the shutter speed.
Set the camera to manual exposure, and use the same iso, shutter speed and aperture from your test shot. Thsee settings will work for all the shots taken in the same light.

It seems like a lot of work, but after a while you get a feel for what will work.

flyguy Loc: Las Cruces, New Mexico

Here is an excellent piece on metering and exposure that may help.

http://www.sekonic.com/united-states/classroom/articles/lighting-for-photography-control.aspx

Ched49 Loc: Pittsburgh, Pa.

There's a few things you can do, use a faster shutter speed to let in less light or bring down the exposure comp. (-) a few stops. Has nothing to do with white balance.

CharleneT Loc: South Carolina

Thank you all for your help. I did purchase the book on Understanding Exposure. It has helped me a lot. I will have to play around with the meters and other things and see what happens. Thanks!

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

CharleneT wrote:

Thank you all for your help. I did purchase the book on Understanding Exposure. It has helped me a lot. I will have to play around with the meters and other things and see what happens. Thanks!

Try my suggestions. You don't need a hand held meter. The one in the camera is all you need.

sueyeisert Loc: New Jersey

Yes, and look at the histogram It will tell you if you're overexposing etc.

Gene51 wrote:

Try the following. br br Set the meter mode to sp... (show quote)

rmm0605 Loc: Atlanta GA

jerryc41 wrote:

I've seen lots of articles about taking pictures of white dogs in the sun, and about the same thing goes for black dogs. In addition to what you get here, try Google.

http://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=photographing%20white%20dogs

Check your URL. I couldn't get it to work.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

CharleneT wrote:

I have been trying to get some good pics of my all white dog. They are usually washed out. I have tried my white balance on cloudy. Any suggestions what will help ? I have a Nikon d3200 with a kit lens. Should I try setting the white balance on sunny?

Step one, take white dog into all shaded area including all backgrounds. Step two, take picture of dog. Step three, enjoy picture of dog.

GENorkus Loc: Washington Twp, Michigan

CharleneT wrote:

I have been trying to get some good pics of my all white dog. They are usually washed out. I have tried my white balance on cloudy. Any suggestions what will help ? I have a Nikon d3200 with a kit lens. Should I try setting the white balance on sunny?

Why not lookup taking photos of an all white wedding gown. A similar occourance happens.

dlmorris Loc: Loma Linda, Ca

I have a Canon, but for such situations, I set the exposure compensation to under expose. As someone else mentioned, for a black dog, you set it to overexpose.... Play around with it until you are satisfied with the results.

foathog Loc: Greensboro, NC

CharleneT wrote:

I have been trying to get some good pics of my all white dog. They are usually washed out. I have tried my white balance on cloudy. Any suggestions what will help ? I have a Nikon d3200 with a kit lens. Should I try setting the white balance on sunny?

shoot manual and under expose 1 or 2 stops.