How to Adjust White Balance

Modern digital cameras have automatic white balance controls that adjust the pure white in an image to manage diverse lighting conditions. Many photographers never manually adjust the white balance, and in most lighting conditions this works fine. However, understanding white balance and when to manually adjust it is an important skill for the photographer. There are many times when you may want to manually adjust white balance based on lighting conditions. In this article we will discuss what white balance is, and when it is time to change it manually.

Things You'll Need

• A digital camera
• Testing and patience

Instructions

1. 

   Each type of lighting has a different color temperature. If we think about color basics, we know that to have color, you must have light striking an object and an observer to see the reflection. We all see color differently, and photographers have little control over the observer. The photographer also has little control over the object. An apple is still red, and each observer will see a different red based on his or her vision. The only element of color that a photographer can really control is light. The color temperature is measured in the Kelvin scale. The accompanying chart shows some estimated color temperatures of different lighting conditions. In the past, we would have used filters or different films to adjust for different lighting conditions. Now your automatic camera does it for you, and in most cases is pretty accurate.

2. 

   Each camera manufacturer has different tools for controlling white balance on their cameras. You need to check with your camera documentation to discover how to adjust white balance for your camera. This camera has a white balance button and a dial to select a color temperature based on your knowledge and charts like the one I provided above.

3. 

   This Nikon camera allows you to input a color temperature, or if you are not sure, to select a condition. You can select based on lighting condition like a cloudy day or a shady spot. You can also select by light source: incandescent, flash or fluorescent.

4. 

   This Nikon camera provides a graphic way to change white balance. Just adjust the arrows to move the black dot into the white area and you will adjust the scene for accurate white balance. Each camera is different, but they all do the same thing; they allow you to adjust the white balance for the lighting of the scene.

5. 

   The real issue is to know when to adjust white balance manually. There is no magic answer for this, but if the lighting conditions are extreme you should consider adjusting white balance and taking multiple exposures to assure that you have the correct balance. The bright desert sun, beach scenes and snow scenes all have the potential for extremely bright light that may fool your automatic settings. This image was taken with auto white balance.

6. 

   This is the same image with the white balance adjusted manually. You can see that the "cyan" cast of the original is replaced with a more realistic white snow. Sure you can probably adjust for this cast in post-production, however, if you understand how to use manual white balance adjustments you can save yourself a lot of post-production work. Professional photographers will often shoot a gray card into the scene and then measure the color shift in the digital image to help them adjust the white balance and assure a neutral reproduction.

Tips & Warnings

• Before doing this in the field, shoot a gray card in different lighting conditions and experiment in adjusting the white balance.

• Make sure you switch back to automatic settings after shooting with an adjusted white balance, so when you grab your camera it is always in a known state.

• Experiment with the various modes of your camera such as portrait, scenic and close-up. See how the white balance is impacted in these modes.

Resources

• Learn About Color