2019-05-01_Digital_SLR_Photography

MARTIN

JERNBER

G/

UNSP

LASH A BALANCINGACT

YoucansettheWhiteBalance

toreflecttheconditions,orto

warmuporcooldownanimage.

FROMWHITEBALANCEANDKELVIN

TODUSK A N DD AYLIGHT,LEARNING

TOREADTHECOLOUROF LIGHTIS AN

IMPORTANTSKILLINPHOTOGRAPHY

Thetemperatureoflightis measuredin

Kelvin(K):thehigherthenumber,thecooler

ormorebluethelight;thelowertheKelvin,

thewarmerormoreorangethelight.Any

lightsource,beit thesunorartificial,hasits

owncolourtemperature,whichis also

affectedbyotherconditions,suchasthe

weatherorif you’rein directlightorshade.

Typically,thescopeofcolourtemperature

thatyoucanexpecttofindrangesfrom

around9000Kto1800K.Whendealing

withnaturallightthere’sa widerangeof

differentcolourtemperaturestoadjustfor.

Forexample,darkshadeis around9000K,

whilecloudy,overcastconditionsaremuch

warmerat around6500K.Direct,midday

sunsitsin themiddleofthescaleat around

5500K,whichis whencolourslooktheir

mostnatural.Howevertowardseitherend

ofthedaythelightwillgetmuchwarmer,as

expected,withsunriseandsunsetsittingat

THE COLOUR

OF LIGHT

58 Digital SLR Photography May 2019

COLOURTEMPERATURE

O U RE Y E SA R EI N C R E D I B LY W H I T EBALANCE

EFFECTIVEATNEUTRALISINGCOLOUR

TEMPERATURE,SO M OSTCOLOURS

APPEARASEXPECTEDUNDERALLBUT

THEMOSTEXTREMESITUATIONS

around 2000-3000K due to the Earth’s

atmosphere. During sunrise and sunset, the

low angle of the sun means that light has to

travel through more of the atmosphere

before it reaches our eyes. The atmosphere

scatters the blue light particles, leaving

mostly shades of red and yellow – this is also

why sunset can appear more red in parts of

the world that have more particles in the air,

such as a smoggy city or in the Middle East

(due to sand and dust). Of course this

phenomenon is also affected by weather, so

the colour temperature varies from day to

day as well as place to place.

Man-made light boasts a similar scope

of colour temperature, although it tends

to lean towards the warm side. Fluorescent

lights vary from 2700K through to 5000K,

whereas tungsten lamps sit at about 3200K,

so are warm in comparison to daylight.

Incandescent bulbs output an even warmer

light at around 2500K, and candlelight is

around 1800K.

Of course, these numbers don’t need to

be ingrained into your memory to take nice

photos, but an understanding of which light

sources are warmer or cooler, how to

manipulate them with your White Balance

and how they interact with the colours in

your scene can help. For example, when

shooting warm colours, cool light will lower

the saturation while warm light will boost it.

The same goes for cold-coloured subjects.

W

HEN WE THINK of colour in

photography, we usually think about

the physical colour of specific objects

or parts of a scene, for example green grass,

a blue sky, or someone’s skin tone. However,

perhaps the most important colour

consideration we should make is the colour

of the light as this has a huge bearing on how

the colour of anything we photograph

appears on camera. Our eyes are incredibly

effective at neutralising colour temperature,

so most colours appear as expected under all

but the most extreme situations, however our

cameras need a helping hand and this is

where White Balance adjustments come in.

The colour of the light will affect every

single colour in the scene – get your White

Balance correct and colours can pop; get it

wrong and the colour temperature of the

light can tint or mute bright tones, making

them look muddy and dull to your camera.

As you’re probably aware, different times of

day and different atmospheric conditions can

affect the colour temperature of the light.

Then there’s man-made light to consider too,

which can represent a wide gamut of

temperatures. This is all irrespective of the

actual temperature, so don’t get the two

confused – you can have warm light on a

cold day and visa versa!

Now we have a bit of an understanding about

colour temperature, how does this relate to

what our cameras see and record? Cameras

determine how to interpret the colour

temperature of a scene using White Balance

• by adjusting the warmth of the image, as
  well as the green/magenta tint, we’re able to
  capture scenes free from colour casts under
  the light of different colour temperatures.
  Your camera offers a range of preset White
  Balance settings – usually Tungsten,
  Fluorescent, Daylight, Flash, Cloudy, and
  Shade, as well as options to input a manual
  Kelvin, set a Custom White Balance and an
  Auto White Balance setting too. Usually
  picking the most appropriate preset for your
  shooting conditions will deliver consistent
  results – in many scenarios, leaving the
  camera set to Daylight works well, as we
  expect scenes to appear cool under cloud or
  the light to be warmer at sunrise and sunset,
  so having them render as such isn’t unnatural.
  Setting your camera to Auto White Balance
  (AWB) tells the sensor to look for what it
  believes is a neutral tone, and adjust the White
  Balance to rid the image from colour casts.
  This works well in many scenarios, but it’s not
  foolproof and AWB can be confused by strong
  colours. For example, set your camera to AWB
  and photograph a scene with a lot of bright