The eye is truly a miracu-lous device.

It can instantaneouslyadjust for lightness, focus andcolor. Walking from a darkroom into bright sunlight, theeye compensates. The eye canimmediately refocus fromlooking at something close tosomething far away. Look atthings under differentsources of light and the eyeinstantly perceives whatappears to be normal color.

All of this happens soquickly that we may not evengive it much thought.

In photography the lenscan mimic the eye for focusand brightness, but it can’tautomatically compensate forthe difference in color gener-ated by different types oflight.

Perhaps you have noticedthat different sources of lightchange how color looks inyour images. Images takenunder incandescent lights —regular house lights — have areddish-orange cast to them,while images taken under flo-rescent lights have a coolblue-green cast to them.

Even images taken in sun-light can have color castsdepending upon the time ofday or whether clouds or treesblock the sun.

Although the warm glow ofthe morning sun may produceattractive images, the coolblue effect of shadowed lightis seldom desirable.

Scientifically, light sourcesare measured using a ratingsystem that assigns lightsources a temperature indegrees Kelvin.

This temperature ratinghas nothing to do with theactual heat generated by alight source, just the coloremitted. A higher tempera-ture rating is not synonymouswith being brighter. On thelow end of the temperaturescale is warm reddish light,while blue light is on the highend.

Our eyes immediatelyadjust to changes in colortemperature, but in photogra-phy, whether film or digital,adjustments must be made tothe camera in order to obtainnatural looking color. Failureto do so can create unappeal-ing results with unnaturalcolor casts.

In the days of film, thephotographer would controlthe color temperature

through the choice of filmused or with corrective filters.

Most films were made togive pleasing results in day-light. When the film was usedunder different lighting con-ditions, the images wouldhave color casts.

There were films made fordifferent types of light, butthey were not common.Instead of using these, thephotographer would usuallymount a colored filter to theend of the lens to add the col-or that would be missing fromthe light source. For example,using a blue lens filter wouldadd the missing blue colorwhen shooting under reddishincandescent lights.

With digital photography,the color of light is controlledwith a feature called whitebalance.

This feature, borrowedfrom video camera technolo-gy, eliminates the need for fil-ters. The camera can adjustthe color automatically, or theuser can adjust how the cam-era sees light manually.

Digital cameras record col-or through a complexarrangement of color filtersover the individual sensors ofthe camera’s recording chip.By modifying that process,the color can be altered tolook natural for most types oflight.

Most the time, automaticwhite balance will produce anacceptable image. But thereare times it is beneficial to setit manually, as the cameracan be fooled under mixedlighting sources or when yourimages have an abundance ofone color that the cameratries to counteract.

A few years ago, one of myinterns was puzzled at thediversity of color results hegot when shooting a basket-ball game. Even though thelighting in the gym was con-sistent, the color of the wallsand the player’s jerseys hadslight color shifts among the

images when comparing dif-ferent images side by side.

That was due to the auto-matic white balance making adifferent decision based uponthe color it saw when the pic-ture was taken.

If a large section of the pic-ture was filled with a particu-lar color of jersey, the camerawould slightly shift the colorto compensate for what itread as a color cast.

If you have encounteredundesirable color casts inyour images, then it may betime to explore the white bal-ance feature in your camera.Most cameras offer some formof manual override. You mayhave to take the camera out ofthe full auto mode to do so.

Cameras that haveadjustable white balanceoften have a number of pre-

sets for different lighting con-ditions. Some of those set-tings can include: Full Sun,Cloudy, Shade, Flash, Tung-sten, and Florescent.

Also, many cameras allowyou to set the white balancemanually if none of the pre-sets give you the right results.To manually set the whitebalance, you point the cameraat a white object under thetarget light source and havethe camera calibrate itself.Professional-level camerasallow you to select the exactcolor temperature in degreesKelvin for precise color.

If you do set your colormanually, don’t forget to putyour settings back to normalwhen you are done. Failing todo so will put a color cast inthe next image you take if thelight source is different.

If you shoot in CameraRaw format, the topic of a pre-vious column, white balanceis not an issue, as it is adjust-ed when you process theimage at your computer. How-ever this is not an excuse forsloppy photography. If you getthe white balance correctwhen you take the photo-graph, it will be one less stepto take in processing yourphotos.

D-6Sunday

April 1, 2007

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TECHNOLOGY

The center image shows the importanceof proper white balance in making pleasing pictures.

Cursed by color casts?Try adjusting your digital camera’s white balance feature

New Dragon Ball Zgame rises above itslackluster precursors

This month’s review is based on a recommendation frommy best friend Andy.

He and I are huge video game addicts and bigger animefans. So when he recommended playing “Dragon Ball Z:Budokai Tenkaichi 2,” I was all for it.

I had played previous Dragon Ball Z games, and was nottoo impressed, but I must say, I was blown away by thisone!

The game, like the anime, follows the story of Goku, aSaiyan from the planet Vegeta who was sent to Earth whenhe was an infant. Goku, along with the Z Fighters, protectsEarth from the evil forces of the universe.

There are multiple choices of game play to choose from.The main storyline is called “Dragon Adventure,” which

takes you through everyarc of the DBZ world,including the movies, andeven some “Dragon BallGT” stories.

As in the show, in Drag-on Adventure you start inthe Saiyan Saga, in whichGoku’s brother Raditzarrives on Earth. Afterdefeating Raditz, PrinceVegeta arrives, the princeof all Saiyans.

You go through a lot ofbattles in the game, andeven when you win thebattle, sometimes you stilllose. Sometimes, the pointof the battle is just to sur-vive as long as possible. I’mnot a big fan of those mis-sions.

DBZ-BT 2 is prettymuch your average run-of-

the-mill button-masher. But there is also some strategy to it.If you have the PS2 version, you can hit the square but-

ton four times, then up on the D-Pad-plus-triangle to dosome pretty cool combos.

If you send your opponents into the air, quickly hit “X”and your character will follow them no matter where theygo.

The actors who voiced the characters in the American-ized version of “Dragon Ball Z” voice the characters in thegame. Funimation produced “Dragon Ball,” “Dragon BallZ,” “Dragon Ball GT” and had a hand in the games.

Also in Dragon Adventure you can play storylines fromDBZ movies including “Cooler’s Revenge,” “The Tree ofMight,” “Lord Slug,” and “The Return of Cooler,” just toname a few.

The game brings to life the great attacks used in theshow, like Goku’s Kamahamaha, and his Kaio-ken Attack.Also Piccolo’s Super Beam Cannon and Hellzone Grenade,not to mention Vegeta’s Big Bang Attack and Trunks’Burning Storm.

The awesome thing about this game is you can takeyour Saiyan characters and transform them into SuperSaiyans. Goku was the first to become a Super Saiyanwithin a thousand years.

Another game you can play in DBZ-BT 2 is called “Drag-on Tournament.” The name pretty much sums it up. Youcan choose from any of the 129 characters, but you have tounlock those characters first. You are given a good handfulthough, including Trunks, Vegeta’s son, who traveled backin time to warn the Z fighters of the Android Attack.

Another game play is called “Ultimate Battle Z.” In it,you take on the role of Goku and fight against rivalsthroughout the DBZ world. You can get rare items and newcourses when you beat each course.

Before you start any game play, go into Ultimate Train-ing, and learn the buttons, combos and techniques. If youdon’t, you probably will be lost.

Also, you can go to Babo’s shop and buy various items toincrease your power, strength, and speed. Every time youclear a battle you get a certain amount of Zeni, the curren-cy of the DBZ World. You can use that to buy these items.

The graphics are great, especially when there is a cutscene. It looks as if the creators took the character anima-tion off the show, made a CGI background and put thecharacters in. When you’re, fighting the characters lookjust as good.

Even though the previous Dragon Ball Z games did notimpress me, “Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2” hasblown me away. It is a game for any fan of the anime.

DBZ BT 2 receives 5 out of 5 stars, and is a great gamefor any fan of the anime.

United States slipping in world’s networking race, study findsBy Bradley S. Klapper

The Associated Press

GENEVA — European countries and Singapore havesurpassed the United States in their ability to exploitinformation and communication technology, according to anew survey.

The United States, which topped the World EconomicForum’s ‘‘networked readiness index’’ in 2006, slipped toseventh. The study, out Wednesday, largely blamedincreased political and corporate interference in the judi-cial system, which allows powerful firms to limit competi-tion from upstart rivals.

The index, which measures the range of factors thataffect a country’s ability to harness information technolo-gies for economic competitiveness and development, alsocited the United States’ low rate of mobile telephone usage,

a lack of government leadership in information technologyand the low quality of math and science education.

But Thierry Geiger, one of the Forum’s economistsresponsible for the 361-page report, said the U.S. marketenvironment remains the best in the world in terms of howeasy it is to set up a business, get loans and have access tomarket capital.

Nordic countries — traditionally strong in all surveysconducted by the Geneva-based Forum — dominated thetop of the rankings. Denmark edged Sweden for the topspot, while Finland was behind in fourth.

Singapore, which topped the poll in 2005, was the topAsian nation in third. Rounding out the top 10 wereSwitzerland, fifth; Netherlands, sixth; Iceland, eighth;Britain, ninth; and Norway, 10th.

The report covered 122 countries, with Chad, Burundi,Angola, Ethiopia and Bangladesh at the bottom.

“Dragon Ball Z: BudokaiTenkaichi 2” is available onthe PlayStation 2 and Wiiplatforms.

WAYNE PALMER/For the Sun-Gazette