White Balance - The Basics

When you take a photo, the colour of the light will affect the colour in your photos. It isn't really noticeable to the naked eye as the brain adapts adjusts almost instantly to it. Therefore, in our minds we see the light as being neutral and normal - even when it isn't.

However, a camera simply captures the colours exactly as they are. This is why a picture taken at dawn or dusk will appear blue and cold, and why photos taken under house lights will have an orange appearance.

White balance controls correct these types of colour shifts.

White Balance Pre-sets

Digital cameras have a range of white balance pre-sets. Here is what the various pre-sets are designed to do and the best times to use them:

Auto - the failsafe, default position. It can be inconsistent though and you don't always end up with the colours you might expect.

Cloudy - For use in cloudy conditions, where light has a cooler tone, the Cloudy pre-sets is good for portraits as it will warm up the colours in the shot. The effect is often too much for landscape photography.

Shade - Ideal for open shade conditions under a blue sky. It will give you a natural look to your shots.

Incandescent - A good match for household lighting. This will be more effective at correcting colour than auto white balance.

Direct sunlight - This is calibrated to capture neutral colours even under the midday sun.

Flash - Conventional flashguns have a cooler tone than direct sunlight. This pre-set will prevent tones from turning too cold.

K - A pre-set on higher-end DSLRs that allows you to set the white balance colour temperature manually.

Pre - This allows you to take a manual measurement of a neutral surface and create a custom pre-set based on it.