WHITE BALANCE
WHITE BALANCE
White balance is an adjustment that accounts for the color temperature of the light in a scene. White Balance is nothing more than an adjustment to get the color you want. You set it to look good on the camera’s LCD and that’s it until the light changes. There is no right answer; it’s what looks good to you. White balance settings may be altered for deliberate creative purposes, exactly as we do with exposure.
AUTO (also called AWB) mode works OK with flash and indoors and outdoors. Usually the images will still be fairly blue in shade and pleasantly warm indoors at night. When the flash is on most cameras automatically switch to flash white balance.
The fun starts when you take it out of AUTO and set it yourself. Here’s what the other settings do:
Tungsten : Very, very blue most of the time except indoors at night, for which it looks normal. “Tungsten” is the name of the metal out of which the bulb’s filament is made. Even indoors many people prefer the warmer AUTO setting. TRICK: Set -1 or -2 exposure compensation and use this setting in daylight to simulate night! In Hollywood we call this “day for night.”
Daylight : Bluish normal. This is a little bit bluer than I usually prefer. Only use it for shooting test charts in direct sunlight.
Cloudy: I prefer this. It’s a little warmer than the daylight setting and best for most shots outdoors in direct sunlight. Why not the daylight setting? The camera manuals are written by engineers, not artists. The engineers are interested in copying color test charts, not making a good photo. I prefer things on the warmer side.
Flash : Almost identical to cloudy but sometimes redder depending on the camera. Use this the same way. On Nikons like the D70 you usually can set separate fine-tuned adjustments for each setting, so you can set different adjustments under cloudy and flash for quick access. This is optimized for the little on-camera flashes that tend to be blue, thus this setting tends to be warm to compensate. With large studio strobes you probably don’t want to use this, since the images may be too red. Try the Daylight setting to match carefully daylight balanced studio strobes.
Shade: Very orange. This is perfect for shooting in shade, since shade is so blue. It’s also for shooting when you are under a cloud on a partly cloudy day since most of the light is coming from the blue sky. It’s also for shooting in backlight, again since the subject is lit more by the blue sky instead of the direct sunlight. TIP: Some cameras skip this critical setting. If so, manually set the CUSTOM preset while in shade (also called one-push, Manual and white card and other things depending on manufacturer) and use this setting in place of the missing shade setting. TIP: I often use this mode even in direct sun when I want to make things look warm and inviting. Try it and you’ll probably love it. The SHADE setting is a professional secret for getting great images, pass it on!
