Light has a color temperture. Incandescent (normal bulb) is hot and gives a red-orange glow while flourescent is cool and will give a blue hue. The White Balance conteracts this and adjusts so what is supposed to be white appears white. You can do this in PS if AWB doesn't work. For a hot shot full of too much red\orange you apply a cooling filter like cyan to equal the temperture out or if shooting RAW you can adjust the temperture there.
You can use WB cards to show the camera what white is supposed to be and let it adjust from there. Most of us lazy types let the camera do its best and correct it in PS later if needed.
In a nutshell, our human eyes have an amazing device which compensates for different light sources, and it's called "The Human Brain".
Light from the Sun and light from tungston light bulbs are very different in color temperature. Some of this is caused by the mechanism and process that each uses to produce the light. Basically, the Sun is much "hotter" than the tungston filament, so the Sun is generally much "bluer" overall.
Even the Sun has different effective temperatures, depending upon levels of overcast and the angle of the Sun relative to the earth (Sunsets, for instance.)
Other light sources have different properties still, like flourescent lights.
In olden days, when BW film was king, it wasn't too much of a problem, and filtration was effective in adjusting tonality.
With the advent of color technology, color film and digital color imagers, color "balance" became a more serious issue and special methods and technologies were developed to accomodate the problem.
If color balance is not properly adjusted, skin tones look wierd, whites have a visible color tone and color in general either looks "off" or even "artificial".
If you know the color source dominant to the subject in a photograph, you are often better off selecting that color temperature manually in the camera. Sunset images often lose their warmth unless you manually chose a more normal daylight setting.
In the days of film, the photographer had to choose the right film for the right kind of light. Daylight balanced for daylight and flash photos, tungsten balanced for incandesent light, and then you had to use filters to correct for fluorescent and the like.
In our digital age, white balance is the digital replacement for those things by and large. If you are outside, you can make the camera balanced for daylight via the white balance, go inside and switch the white balance to tungsten, fluorescent, etc, etc.
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Thanks for the replys and your time. Looks like there is alot to know about WB. I'm getting ready to move up from a point and shoot to a DSLR ( interested in low light time exposures ) WB is something I never bothered with ( or understood) . I will be taking the time to learn more and experiment. Thanks again.
Simply put, if you want your colors to look right, your camera has to have the correct white balance setting. It has to be told how to "look" at the colors.
If you have a camera that can shoot in a RAW format (essentially unprocessed,) you can change your white balance in a computer, afterwards.
Thanks for the visual tutorial stevenV..how much do I owe you ? NOW I see ! Now that I see it ( correct and incorrect) I'll make sure to set it from now on. Great example and much appreciated. I'll bet alot of point and shooters don't know about this setting and its importance. Mucho Gracias again.
Thanks for the visual tutorial stevenV..how much do I owe you ? NOW I see ! Now that I see it ( correct and incorrect) I'll make sure to set it from now on. Great example and much appreciated. I'll bet alot of point and shooters don't know about this setting and its importance. Mucho Gracias again.
What about AWB? Are folks setting WB for each setting, or using AWB?
Sara
What about AWB? Are folks setting WB for each setting, or using AWB?
Sara
It doesn't matter what everyone else is doing. What matters is your results. If you're having trouble with AWB, then use the presets, or use manual white balance.
Remember the simple rule:
Auto = easy, it does not = good.
Auto = easy, it does not = good.
Auto = easy, it does not = good.
I shoot RAW. So what I do is set the WB using the presets. This usually gets me within 50k-200k of the "right" WB. I will usually shoot a WB target once per situation to give me something to work with, but I mostly rely on personal preference as to the final WB adjustments when processing the RAW files.
If one is shooting JPG, then one has less freedom to change the WB later in post and needs to be more accurate in setting WB at the time of shooting. So here manual WB is the tool of choice. Doing a manual WB each time the scene changes is the safest course of action.
Creator of Dgrin's "Last Photographer Standing" contest
"Failure is feedback. And feedback is the breakfast of champions." - fortune cookie
Comments
You can use WB cards to show the camera what white is supposed to be and let it adjust from there. Most of us lazy types let the camera do its best and correct it in PS later if needed.
Light from the Sun and light from tungston light bulbs are very different in color temperature. Some of this is caused by the mechanism and process that each uses to produce the light. Basically, the Sun is much "hotter" than the tungston filament, so the Sun is generally much "bluer" overall.
Even the Sun has different effective temperatures, depending upon levels of overcast and the angle of the Sun relative to the earth (Sunsets, for instance.)
Other light sources have different properties still, like flourescent lights.
In olden days, when BW film was king, it wasn't too much of a problem, and filtration was effective in adjusting tonality.
With the advent of color technology, color film and digital color imagers, color "balance" became a more serious issue and special methods and technologies were developed to accomodate the problem.
If color balance is not properly adjusted, skin tones look wierd, whites have a visible color tone and color in general either looks "off" or even "artificial".
If you know the color source dominant to the subject in a photograph, you are often better off selecting that color temperature manually in the camera. Sunset images often lose their warmth unless you manually chose a more normal daylight setting.
Simple?
ziggy53
Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
In our digital age, white balance is the digital replacement for those things by and large. If you are outside, you can make the camera balanced for daylight via the white balance, go inside and switch the white balance to tungsten, fluorescent, etc, etc.
"Failure is feedback. And feedback is the breakfast of champions." - fortune cookie
If you have a camera that can shoot in a RAW format (essentially unprocessed,) you can change your white balance in a computer, afterwards.
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What about AWB? Are folks setting WB for each setting, or using AWB?
Sara
www.SaraPiazza.com - Edgartown News - Trad Diary - Facebook
Remember the simple rule:
Auto = easy, it does not = good.
Auto = easy, it does not = good.
Auto = easy, it does not = good.
I shoot RAW. So what I do is set the WB using the presets. This usually gets me within 50k-200k of the "right" WB. I will usually shoot a WB target once per situation to give me something to work with, but I mostly rely on personal preference as to the final WB adjustments when processing the RAW files.
If one is shooting JPG, then one has less freedom to change the WB later in post and needs to be more accurate in setting WB at the time of shooting. So here manual WB is the tool of choice. Doing a manual WB each time the scene changes is the safest course of action.
"Failure is feedback. And feedback is the breakfast of champions." - fortune cookie