Amateur Photographer - UK (2019-07-27)

18 27 July 2019 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I subscribe 0330 333 1113

Technique WHITE BALANCE

Cool, warm and just right

ONE OF the advantages of white balance is that when used creatively, it can change the overall look and
feel of images. In the examples here, you’ll see how simply using the Temperature slider in Lightroom or ACR
can be used to make the images look colder (bluer) or warmer (yellower). To maintain realistic-looking results
don’t push the slider too far because you’ll end up with an unattractive colour cast rather than making the
shot look like it was taken at the blue hour or the earlier part of a sunset where the light appears warm.

methods of ensuring
correct colours.
White balance ensures that
white or neutral tones are
represented as white or
neutral, respectively, in the
resulting image regardless
of the light source used to
illuminate the scene. By
simply setting the correct
white balance according to the
light source or in some cases
weather conditions, the image
will be free from colour casts.

Avoid colour casts
Think about when you’re
outside at night and you look
at your house; the light inside
appears yellow, but when you’re
in a room at home the light
appears white. This occurs

because the eyes adjust

to colour temperature

automatically. When you’re

outside at night your eyes

will have adjusted to the

ambient light, which is why

you would now see the colour

of the light source.

Cameras, on the other hand,

need to be told how to ‘see’

and record light correctly to

avoid colour casts. A colour

cast is simply a colour shift

across the whole or part of

an image which gives it

an unattractive tinted

appearance. Colour casts

typically occur when you take

an image with the camera set

to the incorrect white balance.

For instance, shooting indoors

under fl uorescent light but with

Daylight white balance set

gives off a greenish light. Since

the camera is set to Daylight,

which is for ‘white’ light, the

camera will record the colour

temperature of the artifi cial

light source rather than

neutralising it. If you were to

shoot outside in the daytime

and had white balance set to

Incandescent, the colour cast

would be blue.

With the exception of

shooting indoors, where setting

the correct white balance for

the light source is essential

to avoid a colour cast, using

Daylight white balance will

actually see you through the

vast majority of situations.

You’ll notice that your camera

has settings including Shade

and Cloudy, but quite often

these will warm your images

up too much. In the majority of

cases, photographers use these

settings to creatively warm up

their shots in-camera, so they

can see the result on the LCD

screen. If you’re shooting raw

you can, of course, change

white balance and warm

images up or cool them down

during post-processing, and

this is a tried and tested

method of creatively using

white balance.

Cool

With colour cast Without colour cast

Neutral Warm

There are many ways to correct a colour cast – from getting it right in camera to fixing it at the post-production stage