Shooting To Learn (DSLR/SLR) / Discuss

dawn_perry says:

One of the easiest mistakes to make with digital cameras is to ignore White Balance (WB), either expecting the camera to automatically adjust for different lighting, or just forgetting to switch settings. In the days of film camera, one had to use different filters for Tungsten or fluorescent lighting situations, and this made the photographer much more aware of not only the strength of the light (exposure) but the quality of the light as well. Those who have never used a film camera and start off with DSLR therefore may be a bit in the dark when it comes to the concepts of color temperature and white balance.

While the physics of color temperature can be a bit complex and mind-boggling, the simple concepts in use during photography are not. Daylight has a very high color temperature and will tend to shift hues towards blue. Incandescent/tungsten lighting (found on many indoor lamps) has very low color temperature and will tend to shift hues towards reds. Your average studio lamps are somewhere in between this.

Some examples:

Clear Blue Sky 10,000 to 15,000 K
Overcast Sky 6,000 to 8,000 K
Average Sunlight (morning and afternoon) 5,400 to 6,000 K
Noon Sun and Clear Sky 6,500 K
Flash/Strobe 5,400 to 6,000 K
Household Lamps 2,500 to 3,000 K
100-watt Bulb 2,900 K
60-watt Bulb 2,800 K
Candle Flame 1,200 to 1,500 K

(For more info on color temperature, read these: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_temperature
www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/white-balance.htm )

In digital photography, we don’t use filters anymore; we can tell the image sensor to adjust according to the lighting situations we find ourselves in. This can be tricky sometimes. One solution is to simple shoot in the RAW format and fix all WB problems after we’ve taken all our photos. Of course, if you don’t understand what White Balance is you won’t know how to correct it, so it’s probably a good idea to try and shoot with the proper White Balance setting whether you shoot in the RAW or not.

Most digital cameras come with several settings you can pick from: Automatic, Custom, Kelvin, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Daylight, Flash, Cloudy, and Shade. You camera may come with fewer or more than these settings.

The Custom setting allows you to take a picture of what’s called a “neutral reference” – a white or neutral object reflecting the same light your subject will be in – and then using the white balance calculation from that object as your Custom White Balance setting. In the “old days” of photography you’d never catch a photographer worth their salt without a Neutral Gray card: a card that was 18% gray and will reflect all colors equally. It’s still a good idea to have one of these if you’re struggling with getting the right WB. Just hold your Neutral Gray card into the light you’re shooting in (making sure you’re not getting any shadows or reflected lights), fill your viewfinder with it as much as you can, then take your reference picture.

The Kelvin setting allows you to choose the Kelvin-rated color temperature. If you like this idea, then print out the little “cheat sheet” list of color temps above as your guide, and experiment with different color temps until you’ve found what you like.

The other usual WB settings, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Daylight, Flash, Cloudy, and Shade are arranged from lowest color temperature to highest, so keep that in mind when selecting them.

Here are some examples of White Balance “mistakes”:



Oops - left the camera on "flourescent" WB setting (top image)! Fixed by changing WB to "Daylight" in Lightroom.



Here the “auto” setting chose 4800, which made everything too blue (top image). I pushed it up to 6588 in Lightroom. I also adjusted the green/magenta +19 towards the magenta in Lightroom to really bring out the purples and make the color more true-to-life.

The hardest WB problems arise in mixed lighting, particularly in low lighting. In these cases, you have to resign yourself to post-processing adjustments. In the example below, there were the orange street lights, as well as several types of car headlamps passing by during a long exposure, and the flourescent indoor lighting. The original white balance setting shows a yellow horror of a shot:



But by drastically lowering the WB even further to 2706 and adjusting the green/magenta +34 in Lightroom towards the magenta, suddenly the shadows come alive! I pushed the saturation in this picture to the max for artistic effect, but even so you can see the difference just the WB setting makes.

In most daylight situations, only the red/blue WB shifts will need to be made and these can easily be done using your camera’s pre-set WB settings or using a custom WB setting. Low light situations and/or situations using artificial lighting will probably require additional post-processing to adjust for green/magenta WB, so just keep that in mind.

Nothing ruins a good picture faster than bad WB!
Originally posted at 5:00PM, 29 July 2007 PDT (permalink)
dawn_perry edited this topic 57 months ago.