The bottom line is, great still photographers understand that custom or
manual white balance can be used to produce results that film photographers
used filters and different film emulsions to achieve. Manipulating the white
balance can also allow you to create effects that required bulky and compli-
cated lighting equipment in the days of film photography.White Balance Tricks.
Color the Background.Often we take photographs outside, pointing our
cameras into the deep-blue sky. The shutter clicks, then we check our LCD
screens and find that the sky looks unsaturated in color—clear and colorless,
more gray than blue—and even placing a polarizer filter on our lenses doesn’t
always seem to help.
By applying modified film techniques to our digital captures, we can color
the sky as we wish, right in the camera, without relying on glass filters and
various film types (emulsions).
In the days of film, professional photographers simply used an 80A (blue)
filter over their lenses when they were using daylight-balanced film and work-
ing with tungsten lights. The warm light created by the tungsten light source
would fall on the subject, and the blue 80A filter would cancel out theWHITE BALANCE 65FULL BRIGHTNESS
In still-camera, digital photography, white balance is a technique that
allows a camera, often through proprietary software, to ensure that a
known white value (100 IRE) will reproduce properly under a given light
source.
The term “100 IRE” is used more for video, as it was a system devel-
oped by the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) to ensure consistent cal-
ibration of full brightness (white) before television existed. This is also
sometimes called “white level” or “full whiteness,” but not white bal-
ance. While many professionals still refer to 100 IRE, it eventually
changed to IEEE units as an established standard by the Institute for
Electrical and Electronic Engineers.
Obviously, as still photographers, the only radio is our Pocket Wiz-
ard radio triggers, and instead of television we use monitors to view
our results. Don’t be fooled, however—new technologies are leading to
more video-oriented, high-definition cameras.Playboy Model Laura F., is framed
within an archway by photographer
Tom Suhler, in the U.S. Virgin Is-
lands. Laura’s warm-toned clothing
contrasts with the cool-toned build-
ing and open-shade background
light. (CAMERA:Nikon D3 fitted with
Nikon 70 –200mm f/2.8 lens. SET-
TINGS:effective focal length 90mm,
(^1) / 500 second shutter speed, f/7.1,
white balance at 5880, ISO 200)