White balance, The technique behind & TIPS.

Proper white balance ensures that the white elements in an image are seen without a color cast. You can utilize the white balance creatively, blue or yellow shades of color.

The camera's white balance ensures that the colors look realistic. The auto-white balance usually hits exactly, but occasionally it may be mistaken for the color shades in a photo. Different lights have varying color temperatures measured in Kelvin.

Incandescent lamps, for example, have a yellowish hue, while a cloudy sky has a blue color. The human eye can compensate for the different color temperatures. Therefore, we see a white area as white, although the lighting is different. In the camera, it is white balance, which evaluates the color temperature of the subject and ensures that white is represented as white. Most cameras typically have eight white balance settings that match the shooting conditions.

Check colors on the screen

Unfortunately, the camera does not always hit the spot, especially if there is mixing light. Here you have to manually select the option that appeals to the most. You can always choose to shoot in raw, as the raw conversion itself can adjust the white balance in place. You can also photograph a white paper in the current light. Behind, you let the camera use the reference image to calculate the color temperature needed to reproduce white correctly.

You can also select the white balance bracketing function, which typically takes three photos of the same motif with different white balance settings. So you can bake are choosing the best picture. The Kelvin scale measures from 1,000 to 50,000 K, with the lowest being the hot, red-yellow shades, while the tallest ones are the blue ones. The higher the kelvin you choose, the warmer colors you get, as the setting compensates for the actual color temperature.

7900 kelvin

3750 kelvin - Auto white balance

2800 kelvin

Set correctly

CANON On EOS cameras, you change the white balance setting at the top of the camera. The metering method and the white balance share the button. You can see the selected setting on the screen.

NIKON On a Nikon mirror reflex, change the white balance settings by pressing WB. The selected setting can be seen both behind the camera's large screen and on the small display at the top.

OLYMPUS Olympus OM-D series does not have a dedicated white balance button. Here you have to enter the menu. Alternatively, one of the two Fn buttons can be programmed.

PENTAX Press WB. In the menu system you can also set the white balance by shooting a reference image of a white paper or selecting specific kelvin values.

SONY Press WB, where the setting wheel also functions as a button. In the menu, you can also set the white balance by taking a reference image or selecting Kelvin values.

Overview of the Kelvin values

Color temperatures are indicated in kelvin, or K. The temperature scale was developed by the British professor Lord Kelvin, who lived from 1824 to 1907. The purpose of the scale is to indicate the absolute zero point relative to degrees of celcius.

Normal sunshine at noon is set at about 5000 K. The camera's white balance will generally attempt to neutralize color cast. For example, if you want to maintain a warm tone at sunset, you must choose a higher kelvin value. If you choose the Fluorescent indoor setting, you get realistic colors and fine skin tones.