Understanding White Balance – You probably never think about it this way, but light comes in different temperatures. This is mainly because human eyes have an extraordinary ability to adapt to all the light conditions we experience at the time.
For example, think about different light bulbs you may have seen in use in your home. Some bulbs produced white (cool) light, while others produced a more yellow (warm) light. If you were to stand in a room with cool white light and look at plain paper, your brain would recognize that paper as white. If you tried the same thing in a room lit with warm yellow light, your brain would still recognize the paper as white. This shows that your eyes and brain are able to make the adjustment automatically, without you even having to try.
Understanding White Balance
Unfortunately cameras have a harder time with this. This ‘color temperature’ (again, think cool and warm light) is at the heart of a camera’s white balance. White balance (WB) is simply to describe how white (like the piece of paper) and other colors look under different lighting temperatures. If you can figure out how to let the camera know what color temperature it is dealing with, it will be able to accurately record all the colors in the photo.
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Sound difficult and confusing? Don’t worry, it’s not as hard as it sounds. Most cameras, and indeed all digital SLRs (DSLRs), have a variety of white balance settings to help you make a decision before you take a picture – you just need to figure out how to change it, and it’s usually pretty easy. Even then, depending on the type of image you’re recording, you may have the option to change it later if you got it wrong at the time (more on JPG vs. RAW later!).
There are several settings for white balance. The common symbols for each setting are shown in the image below, along with a scale representing color temperatures on the Kelvin scale. (K degrees are similar to ⁰ Celsius, only the Kelvin starts at absolute zero, -273⁰C, and not 0⁰C and it is a standard unit of measurement in science)
Tungsten lighting is a type that is often used indoors and has a very warm temperature. With this WB setting, the camera usually uses a very blue color to help cool the lighting and make the scene look right. Use the tungsten WB in a normal outdoor scene and you’ll see it quickly, as everything is painted a heavy blue hue.
It is set to a light temperature similar to that of tungsten lighting, only it is not as strong and may have a more reddish blue tint. If you’re not sure which lighting you might be in, a quick test to see which of the two works best might help.
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Daylight WB is usually the most common WB, mainly because a lot of shooting is done in these conditions. This is a neutral WB designed to work with the bright colors and tones of a normal sunny day.
This WB setting is again slightly warmer to compensate for a slight cool dullness brought on by clouds. It’s not much different from the WB in daylight, and again, a quick comparison of the two may be helpful if conditions warrant.
This WB is designed to warm an image that is in cool shaded light. Because of this it adds a slight reddish-orange tint to the image, which is only slightly stronger than the same tint provided by cloudy WB.
Setting the WB to Auto means you let the camera choose the color temperature it thinks will work. Cameras can do a decent job, and if you’re having trouble choosing a suitable WB yourself, you might want to consider it, but otherwise you should probably try and master the WB setting yourself.
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You can, if your camera or editing software allows it (if you shoot RAW images), choose your own white balance. You can usually choose anywhere between 2500⁰K (cool blue) and 10,000⁰K (warm orange).
You should also be aware that a ‘wrong’ white balance can be used to create a completely different feel to an image. Using warm white balances can provide a warm yellow-orange color to a sunset image, or using cool white balances can help a scene look blue and moody. The important thing is to note that photography is often about artistic expression, and rules are meant to be broken.
If you look at the following image comparisons you can see the effect different white balances have on the same images. In mid-range white balances (such as daylight, cloudy and flash) there is very little noticeable difference. However, the differences are quite strong at both ends of the scale.
Note that in both comparisons the white balances are very cool blue for tungsten, white fluorescent and even the custom setting of 2500⁰K. At the opposite end they are warm and yellow-red in tone.
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– If you take JPG photos you can’t change the white balance later, but you can change it if you take RAW photos
Most cameras have the WB setting in a menu or, in the case of DSLRs, quickly available with a button on the top or back of the camera. Of course, the best thing is to carefully read the camera manual and familiarize yourself with everything it contains. What is white balance? White balance is an essential camera setting for correct calibration in order to obtain the desired image. If you’ve ever taken a photo or video and found the result to look unnaturally blue or yellow, then an improper white balance is to blame. We will detail what white balance is, how to calibrate it and what to do if you have already taken your photos without white balance beforehand.
Whether you’re a stills photographer or a filmmaker, white balance will play an important role in the photos you take. Fortunately, the process of calibrating this essential camera setup is very much the same for stills and video.
White balance is a camera setting that determines the true color of white. This creates a baseline from which all other colors are measured. The white may not look “white” in all lighting conditions, so this helps correct it. The white balance can be determined automatically by the camera, selected from a list of presets, or set manually by the user.
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The reason why a white balance setting is necessary comes down to the color of the light on the subject, also called color temperature. Whether it is natural lighting outside or man-made lighting fixtures inside the house, the light can come in a wide variety of intensities, values and temperatures.
You white balance properly. Note that an incorrect white balance can also be performed in the camera. Color temperature is a spectrum, so fine adjustments may be necessary to fine-tune your image.
And your white balance may need to be adjusted during shooting if you’re shooting outdoors and the light temperature changes throughout the day. This is a variable that requires monitoring, not a set-it-and-forget-it camera setup.
There are three ways to calibrate this balance on most cameras, although some cameras may only offer one option: Auto, Preset, and Manual.
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Let’s go into more detail about each of these options. For a quick overview of how a video camera white balances, check out the video below.
Most modern digital cameras offer some form of automatic balance. This setting is apparently the camera’s default mode, so it can be turned on without you realizing it. Auto balance means the camera is basically
Auto balance can sometimes be accurate but, just like most settings, you’ll find better results if you calibrate by hand.
Between the automatic and manual balancing options are a variety of presets. Many digital cameras come with a standard set of presets designed to white balance the image under predetermined lighting conditions.
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A typical DSLR camera, for example, may have white balance settings for sunny weather, cloudy weather, fluorescent light, tungsten light, etc.
Below is one image divided into segments according to different balance settings. This example photo was taken on a GoPro Hero 4 but the same principle applies to all digital cameras.
Manual white balance can be done in two ways. The first is by manually entering the Kelvin number. The lower the Kelvin count, the cooler the image, and of course the opposite is also true. The Kelvin range gives you a lot of wiggle room to help you find the color temperature that looks most natural on screen.
The second manual option will provide the most accurate results of all. You can use a gray card or a white card (or any real white object available) to set a custom balance. By doing this, you manually tell the camera exactly what true white looks like in the current lighting, and the camera will calibrate all other colors accordingly.
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