It's been a long time since I've posted any photos, but I have a few of my daughter. Sometimes her photos are serious looking but, I prefer her smiling. I'm printing these for her as a gift for Christmas. She is a model and likes the non-smiling shots.

Anyway, my main questions is about white balance or knowing what is a good color for the skin and color tone for the background, etc. I know shooting outdoors will bring a different color then shooting inside. But, I just want natural looking results whether shooting inside or out.

Can you tell me on each of these photos if the color looks correct to you. As well, any other critiques are appreciated. I use a Canon T3i and XS with a telephoto lens, or Macro 100mm or standard kit lens. My flash is a Canon 580EX II, which gets used straight on at full power. If I have a friend helping me, I'll ask them to hold a reflector so I can bounce the flash. Well, any suggestions are welcome. Thank you all. Cheryl

Sure. It's someone who asks what an egotist is. Simple, wasn't it. Seriously, Obama HAS to put his name on everything. That's ego. Soon it will bite him in the behind.

Did you ever consider that the rich get richer by working harder and working smarter? Steve Jobs, Bill Gates... etc. And by the way they created jobs for many thousands of people and enriched the work and lives of millions more. Sure there were, and are,"robber barons", but many "rich" people earned it the hard way---they worked for it.

Good morning all... I'm really enjoying reading this forum and thought I'd toss my hat, or at least a photo, in the ring for feedback. I'm an avid beginner who only recently ventured into the settings beyond Auto on my camera.

I love architectural detail and while I was out for an afternoon shoot yesterday I came across a new condo that offered some nice perspective. In the photos below I tried to capture this long row of lamps, but I didn't have a lot of success with the focus. They're nearby so it's pretty easy to capture them again, so please let me know what I could do to improve the setup.

The camera is a Canon EOS Rebel XS and I was shooting with a Canon 55 - 250 f / 4-5.6mm IS lens; the information on the back of the pic (thank you iPhoto!) is ISO 200, f / 6.3, 1 / 320.

Thanks... Scott

Agreed. Have you seen the Obamacare "bible? Longer than a real bible with an additional 13,000 pages of regulations. Doctors are already ready to jump ship. Can't get a hip replacement, but you can get free birth control pills. We are truly on a slippery slope to oblivion. The "Leader", not mine though, is an egotist to the extreme... and that makes him dangerous..

You guys are just not making enough money! If you were making millions like the 3% you would not care who was in office, because your lobbyists would keep your deductions and profits high. But you are in the Middle Classes like me, getting a salary and having taxes deducted with few exemptions. Bush lowered taxes on the rich to make jobs, but we already had jobs. The Fiscal Cliff solution did nothing to raise or lower taxes. Expenditures keep going up.

You guys can bail out - won't make a difference at all. You'll sink to a lower class. Soon, we will all realize we are in a class war that even a democracy cannot avoid. Bailing out just adds to the problem.

Yes yes! I have looked thru all the old post all day today :-). No answers. I'll throw in a test shot so you guys can see what I'm talking about. This is after 4 wet swabs, two strokes each. I'm sure I can adjust the swab on the plastic stick and use it more.... it's crazy not to get more use out something that's kind of pricey IMO. In any case I have followed the rules and still these problems, this dust, or now what feels like are stains still plague me. I'm anal about lens changing... very clean and careful always. My sensor should even be dirty much less this bad.

I dropped exposure so it would show up better

One of those day...overcast, cold, etc., decided to photograpf these flowers that my wife brought home to grace the dinner table. I used a Minolta AF 35-70 lens with a Quantaray CPL and lots of light set on macro. The camera is the Sony A-700, flash unit GN56/diffused on camera flash, and a simple tripod. ISO 100 - f22 - 2.5 sec with flourecent lamp lighting. Aside from the blurred pedal of a leaf...what do you think? I used Lightroom 4.3 for post processing, Thanks! Oh my first attemp at macro photography with any length of setup lighting etc., you know the drill. :-) Your input and opinions are much appreciated.