White balance
Scrutinising my images taken in scenes of sun, shadow, using flash, indoor light and low light at a gig, showed the auto white balance to be so reliable that I felt comfortable using this as my default setting. The auto white balance is, as with most compact cameras, affected by a dominating colour in the scene. In this instance, using the correct white balance setting for the lighting or a custom setting is advisable. Creating a custom white balance setting is simple and quick, using the multi-function mode dial.
There are four colour modes: standard, monotone, vivid and neutral. I found that in standard mode, images are generally bright and punchy with vivid colour. Using the vivid setting makes for overly saturated colours that are not to my taste. Each of the four colour modes can be customised, changing contrast and saturation, and it is possible to have two custom settings.
I created one with the saturation and contrast pushed to its limit and one with softer, more neutral results, which was useful for quick access. In the monotone setting there are options of black & white, sepia (with seven options) and cyanotype. I had good fun playing with all these settings, combined with exposure compensation for creative results.
