So last week in a dimly-lit restaurant, I gave it a try. This is the “before,” with on-camera flash uncovered. The washed-out look isn’t bothering me as much as the shadows behind his ears:

on-camera flash uncovered

And “after,” with the flash covered by a napkin, and my daughter a little further from the background than my son was:

flash covered with napkin

I was feeling a little like MacGyver, trying to hold a restaurant napkin over the flash while adjusting the focus and pressing the shutter release button. This is the first time I can remember wishing I carried a roll of duct tape in my purse. I’m not sure if the napkin or this gadget would look better!

Before long, we’ll be getting some real snowfall here in the mountains. In previous years, I’ve been snowed in for about three months, with one storm after another. I’d like to get some snowball fight and sledding shots this year. My photography books warn about white balance problems when shooting snow (the camera tries to make the snow look grey). I haven’t noticed it, and I hope that’s because the camera’s auto white balance is handling it well, rather than because I’m not recognizing the problem.

I have noticed the red/yellow cast in my indoor shots when I’m not using flash, though. This experiment was done hastily last night (busy week). But now I know what the settings do, and I have the “custom” white balance setting ready to go for shots in this part of the house.

auto to daylight to tungsten to custom

And… my daughter, with custom white balance plus edits – maybe overcorrected in the edits. Much better than the first picture from last week, though. My daughter will be happy to help if I need to try this again:

peppermint hot chocolate for the camera