What is and how to use white balance settings

What is white balance?

        White balance (WB) in short is a setting that tells the camera what the color white looks like.

        Hmm, let me say that again, the most important variable when taking a picture is light, because the camera is actually picking up the light that bounces of objects, it focuses it on the sensor and captures it. Ideally if you photograph a white sheet of paper you would expect that it's color in the picture to be white. But, that always depends on the color of the light emited by the light source. Light sources are not always white, so for example a light bulb would make the sheet of paper look yellow, a neon light would make it look a buish shade and so on. If your trying to make a picture that renders the true colors of the subject you're photographing then you will have to adjust the white balance.

 Color temperature

       To indicate the color of a light source color temperature is used. This is a unit measure expressed in Kelvin degrees (in which details I'm not going to get in, but it has to do with the light emitted by a black body heated at a certain temperature and is described in physics by Plank's law; if you are interested read more here...)

       Why is color temperature important? It's because cameras use this measure to allow describing the light source. For example, a candle light would emit a light with a color temperature of about 1000 K, which would be described as a warm color, while on an overcast day the color temperature of the light would be around 7000 K and described as a cooler color. Warm colors have low temperature values and cool colors have high temperature values.

White balance camera modes explained

Most cameras have preset settings that allow adjusting the colors in the picture according to the light source. Here's a list of white balance modes and the most common used icons that you would find in your camera's menu:

	Tungsten
	Fluorescent
	Daylight
	Flash
	Cloudy
	Shade

In addition to this modes your camera will have for sure the auto white balance setting and depending on the model you have it might also have 2 more modes: custom and manual color temperature.

Tungsten

Use this mode when shooting indoors and the light source is a regular light bulb. This kind of light bulbs produce a yellowish light (with a temperature of around 2500-3500 K). By setting this white balance mode the camera will know that it has to compensate for the yellow color cast of the light bulb light and it will adjust the color accordingly and shift the colors towards blue. This is why if you use this setting with light sources with higher color temperatures the image will have a blueish tint.

Fluorescent

Fluorescent lamps produce light with a color temperature of around 4000-5000 K. This light can be described as a blueish white light, this is why when using this setting the camera will try and compensate by shifting the colors towards warmer colors like orange-yellow.


Daylight

This mode is used when shooting outdoors, the sun is overhead and the sky is relatively clear. The camera will consider that the light source in this condition is somewhere in the range of 5000-6500 K.

Flash

Set white balance to flash when you shoot using a flash. Flash is considered a white colored light source and has a color temperature of about 5500 K.

Cloudy

When shooting outdoors, but the sky is overcast, because the light coming from the sun is diffused by the clouds, the color temperature is around 8000 K. This means that the colors are less saturated and also the contrast is lower. To compensate this set the camera to cloudy and the picture will have more vivid color and also warmer colors

Shade

This setting of the camera will try and compensate as the color temperature in the shade is considered at about 9000-10000 K and will try to warmify the colors even more than the cloudy mode.

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