Find the White Balance

I’m really excited about this post because adjusting white balance is something that all but the most ancient digital cameras can do. Adjusting white balance is kind of like doing in-camera editing. By changing the settings you can make drastic improvements to your photos without needing expensive or complicated programs like Photoshop.

Since you were all good little readers who got your manuals out after this post, you should be able to open up to page ___ and read how to change the white balance settings on your own cameras. Then, once you are done reading, pick up your camera and take a few pictures in different locations with different white balance settings (one outside, one in your bathroom, one at night). The key to mastering the concepts I teach this week is experimenting with different settings on your own camera until you understand how they work in different situations.

What is white balance?

White balance is almost exactly what it sounds like. It’s your camera attempting to make colors appear as they actually are, so that whites look white and greens look green. If you’ve ever taken a photo in a high school gymnasium you’ve probably ended up with incredibly yellow photos. In this situation, your camera didn’t gauge the color temperature of your setting correctly.

Most digital cameras now have the ability to change the white balance setting according to the situation, allowing the user to increase the chances of getting a great image right out of the camera. It’s incredibly easy to do, just try it!

What do the different white balance settings actually look like?

Below are some photo examples of different white balance settings. Because of the kind of images I take with my dslr (RAW), I’m able to have greater versatility with editing, which allows me to apply many different white balance settings to the same image. That way, instead of taking 6 different pictures with 6 different white balance settings, I was able to just take one picture change the settings on my computer using an editing program. Remember you don’t need any computer programs to make these changes yourself, you can do this in your camera before you take the picture. I just thought some of you might like to know how I made these examples!

My Canon 50D has several different white balance options, including auto, daylight, cloudy, shade, flash, fluorescent, and tungsten. Your camera should have at least two or more of these options. As you will see below, each of these settings affect the color temperature of my images in a different way.

A big thank you goes to my friend the dwarf for being such a darling model for this series.

AWB

Here is my original image, shot on automatic white balance, straight out of the camera.

Daylight

I really like this one, it’s not only a little bit brighter, but has a slightly warmer tone as well.

Cloudy

Maybe a little too warm for my taste.

Shade

Way too yellow! Obviously the shade setting is good for images with strong blue tint to them.

Flourescent

Obviously the fluorescent white balance setting is for photos taken in artificial light. If my setting was full of really warm or yellow light, using the flourescent white balance setting would have helped to balance things out. But for this photo, it left things looking really blue.

Tungsten

Tungsten is the kind of setting good for high school gymnasiums. But for this photo it’s kind of making my eyes hurt.

I think I have a favorite. Can you guess which it was?

Daylight! The auto white balance (AWB) shot is top, and the daylight one is below.

And remember I made absolutely no edits to the photo other than changing the white balance.

I thought you might like to see how changing the white balance can affect your photos in “real life” settings (because I understand that we don’t all just go around taking pictures of dwarves all day long), so I pulled this picture from a time when played Ticket to Ride with some friends. (You might recognize them from this session of faux engagement photos I did with them.)

AWB, straight out of camera.

It’s not a bad picture, but their skin looks a little bit red.

Daylight

Cloudy

Shade

Tungsten

Daylight white balance setting is the definite winner for me! It took the redness out of their skin without making the picture too warm. AWB photo above, and daylight white balance below.

When I’m out doing my official shoots with clients, I shoot almost exclusively on AWB because of the greater versatility I have with the RAW format I shoot in (as opposed to the JPG format).

Here is a straight-out-of-camera (SOOC) picture of the beautiful Lavani, shot on AWB. It’s a great photo by itself (if I do say so myself), but the temperature is a little bit cool for my taste.

I tried applying the Shade white balance setting, but that made it too yellow.

Here is the daylight white balance setting. Doesn’t that look nice? Her skin has a nice warm glow that it didn’t have before.

Here are the before and after comparisons. SOOC shot with AWB on the left, and right with daylight white balance setting.

Remember, the white balance settings are the only adjustments I made to the photos in this post. No changes to contrast, saturation, exposure, or any other fancy settings like that. Just white balance, a setting that most of you can change in your own digital cameras, whether inexpensive or pricey.

Wow, I think I just chose daylight white balance for my favorite setting for all three photos. I don’t use it exclusively, but I do apply it to a lot of my photos because I like the slightly warmer tint it gives. In examples like the before and after shot above with Lavani, things are really just left up to personal preference.

Any questions?

Now go take a picture with a setting other than AWB. Do it right now!

Next up: we’ll learn about ISO.