Board_Advisors_etc 3..5

type of light. Using filters on the camera to adjust
and color balance can also be used instead of
changing the film color temperature to make color-
cast corrections.
Daylight film is the most widely used film for
photographing indoors and outdoors. It is color
balanced for skylight, daylight, and most types of
on-camera and off-camera flash units. It is ba-
lanced for high heat and intensity on the Kelvin
scale, and when used in tungsten light that is lower
in heat and intensity, it will produce a blue cast in
photographic images. Tungsten film is used for
photographing indoors with household or tungsten
lights or with photoflood lamps, and is available in
two types: Type A and Type B. Type A is balanced
for the 3,400K photoflood lamp, which is the
standard lamp, and Type B is balanced for the
3,200K photoflood lamp. As tungsten film is
balanced for low heat and intensity on the Kelvin
scale, when used with daylight and flash units it will
produce a red cast in photographic images.
Digital cameras, which use CCD sensors
(charged-coupled device) and thus do not offer
the photographer a choice of tungsten or daylight
film, have settings for either daylight or tungsten
light. The digital photographer must manually
‘‘white balance’’ the camera or set the camera to
check the color cast of the light source or set the
sensors to balance automatically. This procedure is
called white balancing because the tone white is
checked for neutrality in the camera: if the whites
of an image have an orange or blue cast, the cam-
era is incorrectly white balanced and must be cali-
brated to the light color temperature. Often there is
a combination of both indoor tungsten light and
outdoor daylight or photographic flash lighting,
and the most abundant light source will be chosen
for calibration purposes.
Fluorescent light is an anomaly in color balance
because it does not fit into the red or blue range of
the Kelvin temperature scale. Fluorescent tubes
emit a discontinuous spectrum, which randomly
varies the intensity of colors, and fluorescent
tubes are not standardized to a specific color bal-
ance or cast but produce a number of slightly vary-
ing color shades. Filters can help correct the green
cast generally characteristic of fluorescent lights,
and a magenta filter (30M) will block the green
color cast from the film or digital sensors when
placed on a camera lens. Filters can also be used
to color balance daylight and tungsten light with

the opposite type of film. To correct the red color

cast made when using daylight film in tungsten

light, a blue filter (80A) will absorb the red light

and balance the resulting scene. Tungsten film used

in daylight can be balanced with a yellow filter

(85B) and this will absorb the blue light and main-

tain the neutral white in the image. Images that are

incorrectly color balanced can also be corrected

through manipulating color printing processes

and digital software such as Adobe Photoshop,

but these changes are often labor-intensive and

difficult. Correcting improper color balance in

color slide film is not possible after the film has

been exposed and processed because the transpar-

ency is the final product, unlike photographic nega-

tives and digital files that are manipulated in the

traditional or digital darkroom.

Color and white balance is important when tak-

ing photographs to accurately reproduce the color

of a specific scene, but can also be used for creative

and artistic purposes. The cool blue color cast cre-

ated when tungsten film is used in daylight is uti-

lized by fine art and fashion photographers, and

the warm interior light produced by daylight film in

tungsten light is often manipulated by photogra-

phers who are capturing architectural or interior

shots. The color casts present in reversing the stan-

dard film and lighting specifications are not the

only creative changes that are used to manipulate

the quality of light. Natural daylight changes color

as the day progresses, and daylight balanced color

film is the most accurate when used between ten

in the morning and three in the afternoon, the most

neutral time for natural daylight and the color

temperature closest to daylight balanced film (day-

light at noon is balanced to 5,000K.) In the early

morning the colors of daylight have a cool cast

and less saturation, and in the late afternoon and

evening daylight is characterized by warm, satu-

rated hues.

JenniferHeadley

Seealso: Color Theory: Natural and Synthetic;

Digital Photography; Film; Filters; Lighting and

Lighting Equipment

Further Reading

Folts, James A., Ronald P. Lovell, and Fred C. Zwahlen, Jr.

Handbook of Photography. Albany, NY: Delmar

Thompson Learning, 2002.

COLOR TEMPERATURE