Kimi pointed out the blue color cast in a picture I posted earlier. It was taken with my new XSI using the 50mm lens. I then Googled the lens and found a review that pointed out the blue color cast. I took this picture at lunch today and was amazed at just how blue it is. I'm wondering if a warming filter would help (or would it just make everything look green rather than blue)...

Sunny, have you tried changing the White Balance to another setting besides Auto? Canon's Auto WB has been problematic for some.

Another option is to shoot in RAW then adjust the white balance in ACR.

If I can find time this weekend, I'll try the 50 f1.8 with the 40D and see whether I encounter similar color cast problems.

The side-by-side presentation sure makes the blu-ish cast very apparent.
I'll be interested to hear if there is a difference when you tweak the white balance.
Ah - the learning curve of a new camera - gotta love it!

The WB was set to incandescent......I was inside at the time; however, I didn't have a light on. Maybe I just need to leave it on Auto for now. I know I can correct color cast, but I want to find out why I'm getting it...lens, operator, etc. Most likely operator error. I'll keep playing. Thanks for looking.

I think that. in most cases, most cameras' Auto white balance works reasonably well. If in doubt, just take a couple of shots. My camera (not Canon) only got confused when inside a sports hall, where the light looked ok to the amazing human eye/brain, but was in fact very orange.

Amazing how the eye/brain can compensate for light temperature - our built-in automatic white balance!

Indoor lighting is often a combination of light from bulbs (incandescent, several different types of fluorescent) and natural sources (streaming in the windows). One possible solution is to use the camera's custom WB function, where you can point the lens at a piece of white paper that's being illuminated by the same source as your subject. This feature is described in your XSi manual on pages 90-91.

Thanks Geoff and Chuck. I've spent all evening reading a really long thread on another forum giving tips on white balance, metering, composition, you name it..........not book tips, but life experience tips. Pretty neat. I set a custom white balance using a white sheet of paper and the same light the subject was in. I then took three pictures of the same thing using 1) custom, 2) auto, and 3) tungsten (what I thought was incandescent). The difference in the three was remarkable. Tungsten looked pretty nasty; the auto was OK, and the custom was best IN THIS CASE. I'm taking tons of pictures, experimenting with lots of different settings and deleting most of the pictures. However, the more pictures I take, the more I'm beginning to understand. I need to let my posts get back to Elements and quit dragging my new camera baggage here. Everyone has been very patient and very encouraging. Now, it's up to me to learn.

Thanks Geoff and Chuck. I've spent all evening reading a really long thread on another forum giving tips on white balance, metering, composition, you name it..........not book tips, but life experience tips. Pretty neat. I set a custom white balance using a white sheet of paper and the same light the subject was in. I then took three pictures of the same thing using 1) custom, 2) auto, and 3) tungsten (what I thought was incandescent). The difference in the three was remarkable. Tungsten looked pretty nasty; the auto was OK, and the custom was best IN THIS CASE. I'm taking tons of pictures, experimenting with lots of different settings and deleting most of the pictures. However, the more pictures I take, the more I'm beginning to understand. I need to let my posts get back to Elements and quit dragging my new camera baggage here. Everyone has been very patient and very encouraging. Now, it's up to me to learn.

Sunny,

I have been working a lot of hours and have not had the time I wish I had to take pictures. Would you mind telling me:
1) what mode are you in? Tv/Av/P/Auto?
2) what custom settings did you use?

TIA

Sunny, could you share the address of that thread on white balance experience with us?

Also, if the tungsten setting is that bad, I wonder what kind of bulbs you're using in that setting? Some of the newer incandescent light bulbs don't have the yellow cast of their predecessors, and it may be that the tungsten setting is obsolete. The lighting is changing here as we make a slow changeover to compact fluorescents - not sure what setting works for them!

And...don't forget that shooting in Raw gives you the best option for adjusting white balance after the fact.....

Charles & Chuck...........I'll be back with you shortly.........it's Saturday morning...rainy day...sleep-in time!