DIY Network

Digital Photography: Color Temperature and White Balance From "The Whole Picture" episode DTWP-103

A picture suffering from poor lighting and composition.

Poor or mixed lighting is one of the most common problems resulting in bad pictures. The solution, in digital photography, is something known as white balance.

Professional photographer Erin Manning shows how the use of the white-balance feature on your camera can compensate for problems arising from various or mixed lighting conditions.

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	Some types of lighting may cause your photos to have a yellow, orange or greenish tint.
	With the white balance properly set on your camera, the colors will come out more vibrant and true.

What Color is Your Temperature?

Different types and sources of light have varying effects on the way photos turn out. This is because each type of light has what is known as a color temperature, and the camera interprets those color temperatures differently.

Natural (outdoor) light has a full spectrum, and may produce a bluish cast in photographs. Indoor fluorescent light produces a greenish cast. Indoor incandescent light (ordinary light bulbs) produces a yellow or orange cast. Multiple light sources make taking good photographs even more challenging and, particularly in digital photography, may result in unnatural tints.

The way to deal with this phenomenon is to use a function found on most digital cameras known as white balance. Under varying lighting situations (and different color temperatures) his feature helps your camera identify what is truly white in your picture. Once the camera "knows" that, it can use that information as a benchmark to properly interpret and balance all the colors in the spectrum. It's a way of making the colors in your photos turn out more "true."

	The white-balance menu.
	Figure A
	Figure B

Using White Balance

Learning to use the white balance function on your digital camera will help you get the proper setting for the light source (or sources) where you are shooting. It may seem technical or insignificant, but it can make a big difference in your photos.

The first place to go to learn how to use your white balance is your camera's owner's manual. It will explain how to access this feature and exactly how it works on your particular camera.

Changing your white balance is easy to do. Set your camera to MANUAL and navigate your menus to the white balance menu. Although the auto white-balance setting will give you good pictures, to get great ones you'll want to experiment.

If you're shooting outdoors on a sunny day, switch to the daylight setting (figure A). If it's cloudy, switch to cloudy. The tungsten setting (figure B) will typically be for indoor lighting. Check to see what options your camera offers and try them in different types of light.

If you set your white balance and your pictures still turn out wrong, try setting a custom white balance. This may be especially helpful when dealing with multiple light sources.

To set a custom white balance, look for the CUSTOM option under the white-balance menu (figure C). Then place a piece of white paper in front of the camera so that it completely fills the frame (figure D), then press the set button. The camera reads the white from the paper and will now recognize what is white under these particular lighting conditions (figure E). You're then ready to take pictures.

Figure C

Figure D

Figure E

Important: Refer to your owner's manual for specific instructions on how to white balance your camera.

RESOURCES :

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Digital Photography
Model: 002864235X
Author: Steven Greenberg
Order this book from Amazon.com.
Prentice Hall
Paramus, NJ 07652

Digital Photography For Dummies
Model: 0764506463
Author: Julie Adair King
Order this book from Amazon.com.
Hungry Minds, Inc.

Complete Digital Photography
Model: 1584500077
Author: Ben Long
Order this book from Amazon.com.
Charles River Media
Website: www.charlesriver.com/

50 Fast Digital Photo Techniques
Model: 0764535781
Author: Gregory Georges, Cris Rys
To order this title from Amazon, click here.
Hungry Minds, Inc.