Photography Beginner

White Balance is not always an easy concept to grasp or recognize.  So we are going to stay a little technical here with this great explanation.

Although it may not look it, light from different sources has a different hue – or ‘Color Temperature’.  We see objects and colors by the light that is reflected from them.  We see white because it reflects all the different colored parts of visible light, but we see colors because they absorb some of the visible light and reflect the rest.

Using the White Balance settings, the idea is to produce a photograph so that the whites appear as pure white as possible, with little or no color tone.

The standard comparison for White Balance is Daylight around mid day, since sunlight too can range from warm red to cool blue.

Light produced from an artificial light source such as a Tungsten light bulb has an orange/yellow color temperature; light from a Fluorescent tube is greener in color. Test this out.

Our eyes are sensitive enough to see this but because we’re not looking for it we don’t always register the subtle differences in tone and hue.

If you’re sitting in a room lit by a light bulb; look around you.  Can you see everything has a slight yellow tinge?  It is especially noticeable with pale natural colors.

Now look out the window – things are a different overall hue.  Whites in the daylight have less of a color tint, or cast.

You are seeing examples of different color temperatures of light, which is why, when you take a picture under normal indoor lights without a flash, you will sometimes find an orange/ yellow look (cast) in your pictures, because you are seeing by light being produced in a different color tone.

How can a white surface reflect white, when the light shining on it is not white to begin with but yellow?

Most cameras have an auto white balance setting (AWB).  This setting tries to correct any color cast produced by the light source and reproduce the colors within the photograph as if they had been taken in daylight.  In effect, the camera tries to compensate for any light that is a different color to normal daylight.

AWB does a reasonable job in a lot of instances, but it can still allow color casts to creep in with artificial lighting.  You will find that your camera has additional white balance settings in a submenu, several for outdoor photography as even daylight color temperature varies according to the conditions.  Each icon depicts a different lighting situation.  These are the most common:

Sunny – Used outside when there is bright sun and blue sky conditions, with slight to moderate cloud.

Cloudy/Overcast conditions – Used to take photographs outside when there is little or no direct sunshine due to heavy cloud cover.  Also use on gray overcast days.

Shade or Shadow – Used to take photographs outside when standing in shade or shadow, e.g. under a tree or overhang, on the shaded side of a building.

Fluorescent –Use this when taking photographs indoors where the artificial lighting is by fluorescent tube.  Fluorescent lighting is common in many social halls and Public buildings.

Tungsten – Use this when taking photographs indoors where the artificial lighting is by light bulb.  Useful when you cannot using the camera flash, e.g. in a place where flash photography is prohibited such as a museum or stately home.

These settings assist the camera in trying to reproduce colors as if they had been taken in daylight. By telling the camera in advance what approximate color temperature of light you are taking a picture in, the camera can try to make a color correction for the difference, in effect it tries to bring the color of the light back to match daylight.

You can see for yourself what effect these settings have by scrolling through each icon and watching on the camera’s viewscreen how the overall colors change.  There are a few other white balance settings and you may even have a custom white balance setting on your camera which allows you to manually set the color temperature for the precise conditions you are taking pictures in.  (Setting custom white balance and using individual white balance settings for special effects is dealt with in the part of this series dealing with advanced camera controls and photographic techniques.)

Now you know more than 80% of all people using cameras! Practice and use this info and make better pictures.

Next up “Auto Focus”.

Sheila