Balance your White Balance
Tue, Nov 18, 2008
Know ur stuff- White Balance
This one is another must know guys- White Balance. Why do we need to know you ask? So the next time when you take photos it doesnt turn all blue or red, thats why. White Balance is the process of removing unrealistic colour casts, so objects which appear white in person, will actually look white in your photo. Colour casts are the inclination of a certain colour in a photo, for example there might be an unsightly cast of blue over your whole picture. The picture below was taken on a cloudy day. The picture on top is with auto WB. Then i decided to use Cloudy WB preset. The picture changed dramatically in tones. Bottom pic. Please click on pic for a full sized image (image will appear in the new window)
Why do we have to adjust our camera’s WB? Simple, because our cameras just cant pick up the sensitivity of colour change like our eyes can. Our eyes are so finely tuned to the change of colour temperature and is able to judge perfectly under different light sources, our camera’s are not.
Incorrect WB creates an unsightly blue, orange or green colour casts. In film photography, WB is done by attaching a different cast-removing filter for each light condition. Now arent you glad we live in the digital age? By definition, colour temperature means the spectrum of light radiated from a “blackbody” with that surface temperature. Whatever. What does that mean to us?? It means that certain temperature corresponds to a certain colour in the visible spectrum. As listed down below :
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For nikon D70,D80-D3, the option to control the temperature is available. Ranging from 2500K (Kelvin) to 100 000K. But you should really use the WB presets on your camera. Just to keep your sanity. So under certain lighting conditions, say fluorescent because your shooting at night, change your WB setting to Fluorescent and voila! You’ve just performed white balance. The list below is for the usual presets for white balance, each of them is denoted by a symbol.
- Tungsten- Basically your ordinary light bulbs
- Fluorescent, room light
- Daylight, sun
- Flash, light from speed light or flash
- Cloudy, when clouds cover the sun
- Shade, when object is covered by shade
The order from Tungsten to Shade is the increase in colour temperature. The WB presets are merely estimates for a certain lighting condition. Don’t be afraid of using a different WB preset if the current one doesn’t suit you. Try experimenting with the different WB to achieve the desired exposure. Another way of altering your WB is by taking photos using a RAW file, as you can change the WB after taking the picture in post editing. If you still cant understand what WB does to your photos, i’ll put it in more simpler terms. All it does is make the white objects in front of your eyes, white in your photo as well. Hence the name White Balance…. Happy experimenting guys.
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November 19th, 2008 at 10:49 PM
hahaha. One tips… whenever u use the WB for certain lighting eg. never ever forget to turn it to Auto or flash when you are using flash. unless u r shooting RAW. I really hate that! That’s why most of the time I use Auto. But another trick. The preset WB/ Set WB, get yourself a gray card. It cost you just a couple of pounds. Or free if you do it yourself, get a gray cardboard, cut it into a pocket sized square shape, and, wallah! There you go, a gray card. Place it infront of your lens, and set the white balance, and happy shooting. Tapi jangan lupe tukar, sebab kalau pg tempat lighting lain, silap2 hancor gk. wallahualam
November 19th, 2008 at 10:52 PM
Thanks bro ; ) yup using a graycard is another way of measuring WB. Another way would be to use a light meter. Which we’ll talk in detail later on.