(Below, I give a step-by-step process for white balancing photos in Lightroom.) Most editors offer a similar process, which involves using the white balance eyedropper to identify a neutral tone and fine tuning via the Temperature and Tint sliders. Then, when you get back home, open your photos in your editing program of choice. Just set your camera to its Auto White Balance function when out shooting. White balancing in post-processing is pretty simple: That’s why some photographers prefer a different method of white balancing: White balancing while editing If you’re shooting action from a distance, taking a gray card reading is impossible.They often won’t produce a perfect result. White balance presets, while easy to use, are only approximate.You’ll need to periodically update your white balance preset or redo the gray card process as the sun goes behind clouds, as it sets, etc. Unless you’re in an enclosed environment, the light will likely change over the course of your shoot.Put the gray card in front of your camera, select the right function in the menu, take a picture, and – voila! – your camera will create an accurate color temperature profile of the scene.īut while these white balance options allow you to handle color casts in the field, they come with some drawbacks: Your camera may even be capable of white balancing off a gray card. A high Kelvin value will balance out cooler light and a low Kelvin value will balance out warmer light. Here, you simply dial in a Kelvin value (remember the color temperature scale I shared above?). Some cameras also allow for a custom white balance. Most cameras allow you to adjust your white balance settings before ever taking a photo.įor instance, you can select a white balance preset (such as Tungsten, Flash, Cloudy, etc.), which allows your camera to roughly understand and compensate for the lighting conditions. You can adjust the white balance of your images in two broad ways:īoth approaches can work, but there are some important caveats to keep in mind: In-camera white balancing Make sense? The two white balancing methods They can mess with portrait skin tones, they can create muddy shadows and sickly highlights, and they can create unwanted moods in your photos.Īs I explain later in this article, you can use a color cast for creative effect – but it’s important that you do this carefully and deliberately, rather than as a failure to properly white balance a scene. ![]() This can also be an issue if you’re doing product photography or real-estate photography, where the goal is to portray the subject as true to life as possible. If you want to photograph a beautiful red sunset exactly as it appears to your eye, you’ll need to neutralize any color casts otherwise, your image won’t match the real-life conditions you experienced. Why is white balance important?Ĭolor casts cause a couple of problems in photography.įirst, they prevent you from capturing accurate, true colors in a scene. ![]() But you’ll get used to it over time (and it can help to think of the color temperatures as simply the opposite of what you’d expect). Yes, you read that right, and it can be confusing, especially if you’ve never encountered the color temperature scale before. And cooler color temperatures, produced by clouds or shade, have a high Kelvin value of 6000 K and beyond.Ĭooler light has a high Kelvin value? Warmer light has a low Kelvin value? Neutral color temperatures, such as midday sunlight, have a medium Kelvin value – around 5000 K. Warmer color temperatures, such as those produced by a candle flame or a setting sun, have a low Kelvin value, such as 3000 K. Photographers refer to different color temperatures using the Kelvin scale. You’re correcting for a cast produced by the color temperature of the light, which lies along the blue-yellow spectrum. The bulk of white balancing in photography consists of color temperature correction. In general, natural light only requires correction along the blue-yellow spectrum, but certain types of artificial lighting may produce a noticeable color tint, in which case you’ll need to correct for that, too. The green-magenta spectrum, also known as the color tint. ![]()
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