Rainbow Tuna

I want to share something with you: The three little sentences that will get you through life. Number 1: Cover for me. Number 2: Oh, good idea, Boss! Number 3: It was like that when I got here. -- Homer Simpson

Ever notice how some of your digital photographs look orange or, maybe have a green tint? The scene you photographed, as you saw it, looked fine, so why did the colors change. Well, there's a setting in your camera called "white balance". While our eyes can adjust for different types of lighting -- outdoors, incandescent light, candle light, etc., cameras need to know what type of light is present in the scene and adjust for it. Most cameras automatically adjust to outdoor light (sun light). When you shoot outdoors, white objects appear white and all the other objects appear as their correct colors.

Indoors, however, incandescent lighting adds an overall orange tint. It has something to do with light wave lengths and physics. My precise understanding of the physics involved is pretty much blah, blah, blah, blah orange. If you find the white balance setting on your camera, you can set it to indoors and the camera will magically make the colors right. (*Caution* Finding the white balance setting may involve reading the owner's manual). Same thing for flourescent lighting, found in most office buildings; things look a little green, like when you've eaten from the cardboard container that's been in the back of the refrigerator waaay too long.

Of course, most point and shoot cameras have an automatic white balance setting, but like all things automatic, those settings are easily fooled. So, let's review. You take the indoor photo, thinking the automatic white balance will tell the camera what all the colors in the scene are supposed to look like. If it works, no sweat. If not, and your girlfriend's mother isn't really green, consider changing the white balance in your camera's settings to flourescent and take the shot again. If she's still green, keep the camera; get a new girlfriend.

The birds are chirping, the flowers blooming and our Wilmington, NC real estate market is humming nicely along. Call or e-mail with any questions about buying in today's market, mortgage interest rates, whether you qualify for the $8,000 tax credit . . . or anything else. I'm always happy to help.

Scoot on!