Transcript White Balance - Woodlands Photography Club
The Importance of White Balance in Digital Photography
Woodlands Photography Club June 2010 Don Rueter
White Balance • Critical to “look” of the photograph • Instructs camera computer how to interpret colors it sees • Set based on temperature (degrees Kelvin) of the primary light source • Incorrect White Balance can cause colors that are too warm (red) or too cool (blue)
White Balance Goal • Achieve a neutral colorcast in your photo • Get whites to look white • Get colors to look like what you saw when you took the photo
White Balance Importance • JPEG vs. RAW • When true color rendition is critical – Weddings – Portraits – Product Photos
Setting White Balance • Before shooting – Auto – Camera Menu choices (e.g., direct sunlight, cloudy, shade, flash, fluorescent (7 choices), incandescent, set color temp) – Manual Preset • Gray card photo • Expodisc • Neutral color photo
Adjusting White Balance • After shooting – JPEG – not directly adjustable – RAW – fully adjustable in most processing software • Menu choices • Gray card photo • White point/Gray point tools
Examples Hi Temp Merc Vapor (7200K) Sodium Vapor (2700K)
Examples AUTO WB Cool White Fluorescent (4200K)
Examples Incandescent (3000K) Set Gray Point on Cheerleader’s Arm
Examples AUTO WB Set Gray Point on Cheerleader’s Arm