Changing the Complexion: White Balance Chart

Last time we talked about the power of shooting in RAW. RAW is one of the two file formats that we discussed back then and it is considered as the professionals’ options due to various reasons.

Due to its uncompressed nature, RAW files usually take up 20MB of space per image but is more editable since nothing is really set yet and “cooked.” Also, due to the sheer amount of information it has, editing RAW images will give you better and more correct results as you will be editing information instead of the picture itself.

Knowing about file formats is one of the most basic yet most important knowledge in photography. These things can really affect your output and determine how your image will look like in the end.

Now that we’ve set a good ground on the elements of the digital image, we can now move a step deeper and dwell on a very influential element in photography: white balance. White balance is one of the easiest settings to change in a camera which is why understanding it fully is very critical for you to take advantage of it.

Knowing the Difference 

For most beginners, the word “Auto” is a sight for sore eyes. I myself am guilty of this practice back then thinking that putting my expensive camera in control will really get my money's worth and produce a quality image. However, as experience piled up together with knowledge, I realized that a camera is just a mere tool and the photographer is the real weapon.

Adjusting the images manually yourself is a really big step towards building the photographer in you. With that one of the first things you have to learn to tweak is the white balance with it being one of the easiest adjustments to set.

On a usual camera, there will be 8 white balance settings with 6 of those being preset, 1 custom setting that can be set by you and the last one being your auto white balance. Each of the white balance settings offers a different look and complexion to your photo which is why knowing what exactly each and every setting can offer can really help you adapt and build your own style.

The White Balance Chart

As you may know, each weather condition or time of the day affects the color of the sky. The sun during noon is relatively brighter as compared to dusk or dawn timeslots, and that is something we’ve known for as long as we can remember. With that, our eyes have already been built to adjust rapidly in a change of conditions to balance out the colors that we see and turn into white what is rightfully white.

This biological feature is something that cameras are not capable of when in manual mode. So in order to make up for that, camera manufacturers developed a way for you to manually select a setting that will match what you are seeing so that the camera will adjust its sensors and take in the amount of light that you want it to take.

In photography, light is measured in kelvins with 5000k considered as neutral light - a bright and sunny day. Meanwhile, color temperatures refer to the overall look of your light in the scene with warmer scenes having the orange to yellow tint like a room illuminated by an old bulb. Cooler scenes have a hint of blue much like the scenes you get if you are out on a gloomy day.

Each white balance setting will record different amounts of light and will also adjust to the color temperature of the white areas your camera sees. The white balance settings are named after the situation where they can be applied to. Convenient, right?

Daylight

Daylight, at around 5000K to 6000K, takes in the average amount of light during a perfect day. It’s also great for shooting night photos if your main goal is to get some of the artificial lights perfectly.

Shade

Shady situations can be very hard for your camera to determine which means that your automatic white balance may not offer you with any substantial help. At a 7000K+ range, the shade mode is great for darker and cooler situations that may need a little bit of warmth to be corrected.

Cloudy

The Kelvin range of this setting is just a little bit lower than that of the shade mode. The reason for this is that cloudy and shade have the same purpose but cloudy may be the better choice in outdoor situations with the same dark and cool situation.

Tungsten

Tungsten is also called iridescent setting because it is often used to correct the rather warm temperature that iridescent bulbs put up indoors. Tungsten corrects this by putting in a little bit of a cool tone to balance the orange areas and allow 3000K or lesser amount of light to be read.

White Fluorescent

Unlike iridescent bulbs, fluorescent lights approximate the natural light of 5000K much better if we look with our eyes. However, to our cameras, fluorescent lights can produce a very cold look which is why this setting was build to balance it out by injecting warmer tones.

Flash

If you will be using your flash to take a picture, you’ll actually be adding a cool light that can produce a very cold image if unbalanced. This where your flash mode comes in because it warms up your image to produce balanced whites.

Take note however that most advanced external flashes may offer Kelvin adjustments.

Custom

You don’t really have to convey to the conventions of these preset white balance modes although they can really help you for starters. However, once you get a better grip of the white balance concept, you may start creating your own style already and maybe prefer your own white balance mode that will suit your preferences.

Auto White Balance

Finally, the auto white balance mode relies on your camera’s systems to determine whether a scene is warm or cool so that it can do the necessary adjustments. However, just a small advice if you are using auto balance, you may result with a bland photo without much colors.

Build on this

So that’s the white balance chart for you. These eight white balance modes should be able to help you adjust to any situation that life may throw at you to ensure that you and your camera are able to work on the same wavelength - figuratively and literally.

Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Shade, Flash, Custom, and Auto - these are your white balance modes and familiarizing yourself with the concepts behind them is a big step forward to creating your own style. Photography is all about light and white balance can attest to that.

Build on this knowledge and start creating your identity by knowing your options.

Next lesson will take us back to the camera, particularly a certain shooting mode that has the ability to surprise even you. The power and capabilities of burst mode are something that most people seem to forget and that’s where we’re gonna pick up for the next article.

That’s it for this one and don’t forget to share this article to whom you think will need it!