Lesson Five: White Balance

White balance is you or your cameras guess at what true white should be, which dictates what the other colors in your photograph should be.  Depending on what you’re shooting, your photographs can come out a number of different tones that may or may not be what the correct color of the natural light you're shooting in.  White balance is used to avoid unwanted color tones that might make for unrealistic looking photographs.  The last thing I want to do after getting my exposure right in a photo is go home and edit the color cast in the photo if I didn’t have to edit it.  (Not counting editing for fun). 

         The different modes for white balance on my camera are shown by an assortment of icons representing Auto White Balance, Custom, Kelvin, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Daylight, Flash, Cloudy and Shade.  By experimenting with each white balance you can determine which looks most natural, meaning it doesn’t have a green, blue or orange overcast.  For example if you go outside and set your white balance to tungsten light, your photo will come out blue because tungsten is used to cool down any false light that might create an orange tone. Tungsten turns natural light blue.  Auto White Balance is what I normally revert to when shooting outside, simply because I don't take the time to experiment.  The camera usually guesses natural light accurately enough for me, I’ve noticed. However after shooting this assignment I'm going to start being for conscious of what white balance I use.  Shooting indoors can be tricky. Whether you’re in a coffee house or a church or a house or an office, the color cast of the unnatural manmade light can be an undesired effect that can be countered by experimenting with white balance. 

         To set a custom white balance you need a target or a grey card or even possibly part of the scene that you’re in that might be neutral.  When I used to photograph weddings with a local photographer, I used to hold his target so he could set a custom white balance at the church if the tone of his photos tended to be a bit extreme on the warm side. If we didn’t have time for the target, he would should part of the brides wedding dress in the hopes that we could get an accurate reading. 

Daylight

Shade

Cloudy

Tungsten

Fluorescent

Flash 

Custom

Kelvin

Auto White Balance

         After experimenting outside with the different white balances, it was easy to decide which one I liked the best for the scenario.  Seeing as I was just taking some detailed fall photos, I liked the Shade set white balance.  I really disliked tungsten and surprisingly Auto White Balance.  To take a photograph of autumn leaves, I really wanted to photograph the way autumn feels.  And though autumn is a cold, crispy wet time of year, whenever I think about it, it looks red and warm.  The leaves are red and golden.  To me its like the trees have caught fire, and so it only makes sense to have a warmer, more orange white balance.  The Shade setting seemed to do that best for me. Here are some examples of a few other photos I shot under Shade white balance.