Photography- My best advice...

... read your camera manual and try things out as you go.  Now I haven't completely done this.  I don't really get my camera out if it isn't for a photographing something specific. I also go through spurts of camera use.  I will have it practically attached to me for a time and then I will forget all about having a camera for a bit. 

I discover the most about photography when I am messing around.  I have made it almost halfway through my manual.  There are times that I am curious about a specific function so I pick up the manual and look it up.  Unfortunately, the manual is kind of boring and it doesn't always make sense when just reading it.  One of the best ways to understand is to read a section and then go out and try out what it is all about.  For instance, when trying out the white balance settings I shot the same subject in the same light on all of the different settings.  Then I can compare them to see what the settings are doing.

Here is a sample taken in my living room at night with regular light bulbs (tungsten). These are all SOOC (straight out of camera) with no flash unless noted.

daylight white fluorescent            white light fluorescent

daylight colors fluorescent            daylight

shade                                             cloudy

tungsten                                        flash (flash not on)

flash (flash on)

What I gather from these pictures is that the best light comes from the tungsten setting.  I can tell because I know the true colors of these things in the room.  The card in front is almost the correct green, the label on the bottle has the most correct coloring, and the background is lit.  The flash setting (with the flash on) brings a fairly close color on the tissue box, but the background isn't lit and there are pretty bad shadows. 
If you really want to understand white balance, try this out in several different types of light, photographing the subject using each of the settings every time.  Yesterday I was taking pictures of Ashley's doll.  I was trying to get a good white balance.  I was shooting in the house with the lights on, the shades open allowing sunlight to backlight it.  When I tried the tungsten setting the picture was very blue.  With the daylight setting it was just a bit too yellow.  I don't remember which setting I ended up using (maybe shade) but I edited it slightly in Photoshop to make the color a little better (it is still off).  In this case, a gray card would have been ideal to set a custom white balance.  I don't have one of these, but maybe one day...

The point to all this?  If you are just reading what is in your manual, you might not understand it.  You might get bored.  By trying out what you are learning, you will probably comprehend it better and you might think it is a bit more fun!  I don't have it all figured out, but I'm working on it.