White Balance

I know this installment of Tips and Tricks is a bit early, but the way my schedule is going, I figured I would go ahead and write it while I had the time. This is going to be a little bit different that what I had originally planned. You see, I have been talking with Julie recently about something that she is working on...using White Balance. This is an often overlooked aspect to photography, both digital and film. Since there was a need, I figured I would go ahead and dive right in. Keep on reading to find out how to keep your whites white, and your colors bright....sorry, the washing machine is going in the background.

Whether you shoot film or digital, I am sure you have looked at a picture and thought to yourself "why do those colors look like that?" It might just be a little off, or it could look like an alien planet. Either way, it is caused by the same problem...color temperature. Just to clarify, this has nothing to do with the season or the actual temperature outside. There isn't even a heat index in color temperatures. This simply refers to what part of the light spectrum is predominant in the photograph.

Human eyes can adapt very quickly to changes in color temperature and for the most part you will never notice a difference, unless you are thinking about it. Look outside right before sunset and notice how orange things appear. That is warm light. Conversely, if you look outside early in the day under cover of clouds, you will see a blue tone on everything. That is cool light. Those are extremes and about the only time you will be able to notice it with your eyes. Film, on the other hand is much more particular about color temperature. Some examples of where these temperatures fall and what effect they have on film are in the following chart.

Light Source Color Temp Affect on film__________

Candlelight 1000K Very strong orange/red cast

Sunset 2000-3000K Very warm orange cast

Tungsten 3000K Warm orange cast

Average noon light 5500K Accurate colors

Flashgun 6000K Accurate colors

Cloud/haze 6500-8000K Blue cast

So what can be done about the color casts in our pictures? There are two ways to deal with this when using film. The first is by using filters to correct the color casts. There are warming filters (81 series) to correct for cooler color temps. There are also cooling filters (80 and 82 series) to correct for the warmer color temps. These filters correct the light entering the lens so the final picture will show the accurate colors. However, keep in mind that you don't always want to correct for color casts. There are even times you will want to make the color cast a major part of the photograph to set a mood.

The other way to deal with color casts is to use specific films that are balanced for the anticipated shooting conditions. These are primarily daylight balanced (for outside shooting) and tungsten balanced (for indoor shooting). This film will automatically correct for these conditions and render closer to accurate colors.

The digital end has been simplified when it comes to correcting for color temperatures. This is done by the use of the White Balance function. Most, if not all digital cameras will have this feature either as a menu item, or as a button selector. Look in your owner's manual for more information on how to use this function. On my F828 camera, I press the WB button shown below and turn the thumb wheel selector to select the desired setting.

After activating this function, I can choose between these settings.

Auto -- lets the camera decide what is best

Daylight -- Balances the colors for a typical sunny day

Cloudy -- Gives a slight warming effect to counteract the cooling effects of cloud cover

Fluorescent -- Corrects for the green color cast under most fluorescent lights

Incandescent -- Corrects for indoor lighting

Flash -- adjusts to take into account the use of the flash

Custom -- More on this one later

This is a list from one camera. Your camera might have more or less options, but the theory is the same behind each. I know you are tempted to go with Auto White Balance. To be perfectly honest, that is how I shot for nearly the first year. I have changed that approach because I ended up with some odd coloration in some of my pictures. When the camera chooses the white balance setting, it is looking for a true white in the view. If you have framed an image that doesn't have a true white, then you will possibly see problems. The camera will estimatewhere the white should lie in the spectrum, and it isn't always correct.

By telling the camera the approximate color temperature you are shooting in, you are eliminating the camera's need to find a white value. This is very much like using a color balanced film (daylight vs tungsten). For the vast majority of the time, shooting outdoors, I use the sunny or cloudy setting on my camera. Some of the newer DSLRs even have a shadow setting which I would get some use out of. There are endless possibilities when it comes to proper color temperature correction. Therefore, you will find that you might not have the proper option to cover the lighting you are shooting in.

This is where the custom selection will work. While in the particular lighting you are to be shooting in, you can set a white value. The only thing that is needed is a white sheet of paper. I keep a blank one folded up in my bag for just such occasions. Place this paper in the area you are shooting and zoom in on it. You will be able to tell the camera that the paper is white and to adjust accordingly.

To illustrate the impact that the white balance setting will have on a picture I will share two similar shots. These were shot at the same exposure, but with two different white balance settings. You will notice that changing the white balance has more to do with the overall color representation than just the white portions of the picture.

This shot was made using the sunny setting.

In the next shot, I used the cloudy setting. Notice how the scene appears much warmer. This is a pleasing aspect of this setting, however, the flowers didn't have the pop I wanted. The above sunny setting provided the best compromise for the shot and made it appear the way I wanted it to.

As you can see, something as simple as a white balance setting can have all sorts of impact on the picture. It can be used both as a color cast correction device, or it can be used for artistic impact. An example of manipulating the color cast in a picture to capture a particular mood can be seen in the following photograph.

In this picture, I wanted to have the early morning lighting for directional purposes. However, I didn't want the overall look of the image to be that of a warm sunrise. I used the sunny setting, along with a polarizing filter to achieve the blue overtone. The exposure was made just before the sun crested the horizon. This set the mood for the winter chill that was in the air at the time of the shot.

Well, there you have it, everything you ever wanted to know about white balance but were afraid to ask. Now you can make your whites white, and your colors bright.

Written by Greg A. Kiser