WHITE BALANCE

White balance (WB) is the process of removing unrealistic color casts, so that objects which appear white in person are rendered white in your photo. Proper camera white balance has to take into account the "color temperature" of a light source, which refers to the relative warmth or coolness of white light. Our eyes are very good at judging what is white under different light sources, but digital cameras often have great difficulty with auto white balance (AWB) -- and can create unsightly blue, orange, or even green color casts. Understanding digital white balance can help you avoid these color casts, thereby improving your photos under a wider range of lighting conditions.

Here are some of the basic White Balance settings you’ll find on cameras:

• Auto – this is where the camera makes a best guess on a shot by shot basis. You’ll find it works in many situations but it’s worth venturing out of it for trickier lighting.

• Tungsten – this mode is usually symbolized with a little bulb and is for shooting indoors, especially under tungsten (incandescent) lighting (such as bulb lighting). It generally cools down the colors in photos.

• Fluorescent – this compensates for the ‘cool’ light of fluorescent light and will warm up your shots.

• Daylight/Sunny – not all cameras have this setting because it sets things as fairly ‘normal’ white balance settings.

• Cloudy – this setting generally warms things up a touch more than ‘daylight’ mode.

• Flash – the flash of a camera can be quite a cool light so in Flash WB mode you’ll find it warms up your shots a touch.

• Shade – the light in shade is generally cooler (bluer) than shooting in direct sunlight so this mode will warm things up a little.

ExampleS:

Correct White Balance

REDDISH / YELLOWISH IMAGE