White Balance: Prevention and Perfection
How it works
White balance adjusts colours to match the light source. This is done to make white objects appear white. White balance settings can be tricky to find when subjects are lit by many different light sources.
These colour differences will be reproduced by the digital camera’s image sensor. The result is that the colour of the photo would appear to vary depending on the light source. The camera needs white balance information to rebuild the colour image. Presets are often used to simplify this process.
The most common white balance presets are daylight, shade and cloudy, tungsten or fluorescent, and flash. The camera will make white objects appear white by setting the right settings for your shooting conditions. The light from an image is reflected through the lens and into the camera’s body. Finally, the light passes through an RGB filter to activate the sensor.
Take into account
Digital photographers often try to be perfect digitally but forget that they are artists. Do not place limits on yourself and other artists. Photography is not all about technicalities. Some aspects are more fun and artistic than others.
Through a lot of trial and error, I discovered that discretion is key. This is because the colour temperature of the image may vary from one area to the next. In areas with direct sunlight, the white image balance will change. However, it will not be the same in areas with shadows or artificial light. Which one of these areas will be the best sampling area?
If you think that post-processing will solve the problem, then think again. It would be easier to adjust the white balance setting if it only had one variable (the slider), in which case we can simply move the slider in the editing program left and right until we find the correct position. White balance adjustments often have more than one setting. It’s almost impossible to adjust white balance using trial and error. This is why it’s important to practice setting or to adjust the white balance properly.
The overall feeling
Our eyes automatically adjust to lighting conditions when we view white objects. This makes it appear white no matter where we are, indoors or outdoors. Digital cameras can’t do this, so the object may appear differently depending on how it is lit. This is called the “color temperature”. Our photos can be left with a cool (cool) or warm (warm) tint.
White balance refers to the process of helping our camera reproduce the whites in the photo correctly. When the white balance is right, all other colours fall into place, and the image will perfectly reflect what we saw. The difference between a “digital” image that looks dull and one that jumps out at you when you look at it is white balance.
