What is White Balance?

The term "white balance", in fact, refers to color balance. Balancing the colors in your image will allow them to be represented accurately. The process of creating white or color balance is a simple adjustment that requires very little time and leads you to a better image.

The picture on the left uses automatic white balance (AWB). The camera made the picture too blue because it was not able to determine the light source. This picture was actually taken indoors under tungsten light. The image on the right had the white balance setting set to Tungsten. As you can see, the colors have been adjusted to be accurate.

The Color Of Light
 
Colors are measured in the Kelvin Scale which, as it turns out, is a measurement of temperature not color. The Kelvin Scale, symbol (K), defines an absolute zero for temperature. And, because a specific temperature will consistently display a color, the scale is useful in determining how to modify or "balance" colors.

Here is how this is useful in photography. As light changes color throughout the day, it will vary from a reddish color in the early morning to yellowish at noon. If it is overcast, you'll have a bluish color because light is going through blue grayish clouds. Then, the late afternoon will bring those reddish hues again. The Kelvin Scale will help you determine how much yellow/red or blue to add in order to modify the image to the color tone you desire.

White Balance Adjustments

Amateur photographers sometimes have difficulty managing colors due to the brain's ability to auto correct color. Our brains will adjust what we see with our eyes. If you look at a white piece of paper using light from a bulb, you will still see the paper as white and you will not see the yellow light that it cast upon it because our brains will correct for the yellowish light. Our camera captures what we don’t see and may interpret colors differently because it is "seeing" different sources of light.

What you want to be able to do is get the right color temperature of your light source. As a photographer, consider where your subject is, not where you are standing when selecting a White Balance setting. If you are standing in the sun and your subject is in the shade, you will need to select Shade for white balance. Yes, it is that simple.

Keep in mind that this may change with each image you shoot. You may be taking a picture under the sun and suddenly clouds will roll in and then in a few minutes move away again. Look in the LCD screen of your camera to see how the image looks and adjust as necessary.

If your camera is set to auto white balance (AWB) most times it will guess correctly but what happens when it does not. It is up to you, the photographer, to take the camera out of auto and adjust it manually. The more work you do while you are processing your images the less work you will have to do in post-production.

How to Adjust White Balance?

You can set white balance with just about any camera now a days, from a small point and shoot to an expensive DSLR. White Balance settings can normally be adjusted in one of two ways (some cameras allow both). It can be found in your camera’s menu or, in other cameras, by pressing the WB button on the camera’s body. Look in your camera’s manual to see where the setting is located. Your camera can be adjusted to the following white balance settings.

Auto		The camera will analyze the light in the frame and take its best guess. Most of the time it will do a good job.
Tungsten / Incandescent		Is about 3200K. Normally used when you are shooting indoors where the main source of light is light bulbs. The camera will add blue color to compensate, therefore if you shoot outdoors your picture will look bluer.
Fluorescent		Is about 5000K. Your camera will compensate for the green light emitted and will warm up your image by adding blue but not as much as the Tungsten setting.
Daylight		Is about 5500K. Use under really bright conditions. Sometimes the Cloudy setting works better.
Flash		This will provide color balance when working with flash by adding amber color.
Cloudy		Is somewhere between 7000K to 8000k used for overcast or cloudy days. Your camera will add more amber color than in the Flash setting to compensate.
Shade		Is somewhere around 10000k. This setting will compensate for the blue light emitted and warm up your image by increasing the amount of amber color, more than on the Cloudy setting.

These settings go from cooler to warmer as we move down the list. As sources of light become warmer they have more blue color and as they become cooler they have more amber color. Your camera will add either blue or amber to compensate and balance the white color in the image.
There is another setting:

Preset		Normally used with a 18% gray card or some other color card but you can also aim it at any specific color in front of you. It will use this setting for all pictures you take afterwards so remember to remove it once you are finished. Reference your manual as each camera sets it differently.
Custom		This setting is used when working with strobes and you know what their light output is, but it can be use to set any temperature you like by dialing the temperature manually.

Recommendations

One thing I suggest is that you shoot in RAW mode. With a RAW file you can always tweak your white balance using post-production software.

Tip: If you absolutely need to have the right color balance in your images, I recommend you use the Optek Premium Reference White Balance Card - 3 Card Digital Color Correction Tool you see here to the right. They contain a black, an 18% gray and white cards. These cards are very inexpensive and easy to carry and usually run for less than 15 dollars.You can learn how to use these cards here.

Another thing I would suggest is to explore with different white balance settings. Don't be afraid of showing your artistic and creative side. Sometimes you will want a certain mood in your image. You may want it to look warmer, with more yellows and oranges, to have the viewer believe it is summer time and creating a happier looking image. Or you may want it looking bluish to show that it is winter or early hours of the morning. This last one will create a more mellow or somber feeling.

For the images below: The picture on top was taken with a Shade white balance while the image below was taken with a Cloudy white balance. I think the bottom pictures makes it look slightly more alive don't you?