How do I go about achieving these results?

[sbryan]

Hello all,

Here (http://s61.photobucket.com/albums/h77/noncombatant/?action=view&current=1178226578.pbw) are some pictures from our lobby display that I just love. They're rich in color and detail, and they can also be reused in our marketing materials.

I dislike the photo of the kid sitting in the wood-paneled room, and I threw that in there for comparison. That is the kind of photo that I can take with my Canon Rebel XTi and a tripod.

The thing that stands out about the other photos is the control over color, so my question is, how do I ensure that my white balance settings are correct and the colors are vivid in the field? I know I can manually set the white balance, but I don't do so now. I need a system that's better than shooting and winging it with RAW files and Photoshop later. Maybe there's a card or lens cover I can use?

Obviously I'm going to have to replace the XTi's stock lens to get those results. I was looking at the Canon EF-S 17-55mm, but judging from the photos I admire, you guys may be able to suggest something more befitting.

By the way, how the heck did they take that photo of the kid in the waterslide? By that I mean how did the kid not slide into the camera?

There will be more questions to come...

Thanks for your help.

[egproductions]

I don't see anything too amazing about the photos shown, they are just good photos. There is very vibrant color in a lot of them, this will mostly have to do with the lighting that was used to shoot these scenes. Long exposures for nightime shot will also contribute to this. I don't think there wil be a visual difference with a better lens than the standard lens of the xti for web use. Lenses are primarily judged on there speed/focal length and by their sharpness (there are other things also but its nothing that is oging to make a huge difference for web sized photos.) Don't worry about white balancing on scene if you are shooting raw. you can get more accurate color temparatures using any raw program without a lose of quality (the beauty of raw)
The waterslide pic was probably done using a telephoto focal length, falttening the distance between the camera and the kid.