Beecher's Handouts /

White Balance / 19.1 - Introduction

Two Problems

Most beginning photographers have little awareness of the color of the light they're using when photographing.

The main reason for this is called chromatic adaptation.

Our eyes adapt to the color of the illumination.

For example, florescent lights, unless they're full spectrum, produce green light.

However, we perceive the light as being white.

White Balance

Set the white balance to correct for different colors of light.

These are the common settings for this feature:

Icons	Use
Automatic (A or AWB)	Averages the color
Tungsten	Removes orange from light bulbs
Fluorescent	Removes green produced by fluorescent tubes (except full-spectrum tubes)
Cloudy	Removes blue from overcast weather
Shade	Use on a sunny day, to remove cyan, in the shade
Custom/Preset	See below

Custom (Preset)

Use your camera to measure the color of the light if:

1) Different colored light sources are illuminating the subject, such as a mixture of tungsten and fluorescent lighting in a kitchen.

2) You want more precise color than that provided by the above white balance icons.

For example, tungsten lighting varies according to the type of bulb and wattage.

The tungsten white balance icon uses an average setting.

You can get a more precise white balance setting by using the camera to measure the color of the light in the scene.

Don’t set a custom or preset white balance if you want to preserve the color of the scene, such as a red barn that fills the frame, or a sunset.

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