October 10

White Balance Read and Write

White Balance is something worth learning about to help impact your shots. At its simplest the reason we adjust white balance is to get the colors as accurate as possible without editing. Without correcting the colors in your image, their would be a tint of color due to the lighting in the picture. fluorescent lighting adds a blue tint as tungsten lights adds a yellow tint.

Our eyes adjust to the temperature of light but a camera is not smart enough to do so without a little help. For cooler light you’ll need to tell the camera to capture the warmer light and the opposite for a warmer light.

Depending of the digital camera you have you would use manual, semi-automatic, or if you’re camera has a specific automatic mode for white balance.

Some of the basic preset white balance settings on cameras include, Auto, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Daylight/Sunny, Cloudy, Flash, and Shade. Don’t forget you can adjust white balance in manual.

Auto is where the camera guesses on what to do based on lighting, shadows, and the subject. Tungsten is a mode that is usually inside, It is set to make warmer colors cooler. Fluorescent compensates for the cool light and warms up your shot. Daylight/Sunny is not on every camera, but it sets the white balance as fairly normal. Cloudy generally warms the image up a little more that Daylight. Flash tends to warm up the shot. And finally, Shade warms up the picture since shadows are typically cooler.

The Manual White balance adjustments varies from camera to camera, but essentially you tell your camera what “white” is and it applies that to you camera to correct the colors. You set white with a white card or a subject that could represent white. Changing your white balance betters your shots and I recommend you learn how to use it.


Posted October 10, 2021 by sukilynne in category Projects and Posts

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