The seventh essential creative option is the white balance control.
The white balance control allows you to manage the amount of blue or amber in your image. The creative goal of changing the white balance setting in your camera (despite its name) is not to make the color white look white, rather it’s to allow full expression.
An artist chooses the white balance setting that best suits his or her vision, that best fixes any color problems, that most expresses how he or she feels. This single adjustment can have a massive effect on how your picture appears and is always the first supporting feature chosen.
The White Balance Control
Your camera will either allow you to choose it directly from 30 (or more) Kelvin temperature settings (often referred to as the ‘K’ method) or will limit you to a handful of presets (small icons representing specific temperatures). Most entry level cameras support the icon method. If you’ve spent a little more on your camera however, it will probably support the (K) method, as well.
Let’s look at the presets first. The general icons (found in most cameras) are Shade, Cloudy, Flash, Daylight, Fluorescent and Tungsten. If we put them in order from higher to lower, you will see that your outdoor lighting situations will use a higher (warmer) white balance setting, while your indoor lighting situations will use a lower (cooler) white balance setting.
- Shade – 7000 K
- Cloudy – 6000 K
- Flash – 6000 K
- Daylight – 5200 K
- Fluorescent Light – 4000 K
- Tungsten Light – 3200 K
What you will also see is that each of the six presets are attached to a Kelvin temperature (K) ranging from 3200 to 7000. This is rather limiting when you realize your camera offers more than 30 Kelvin temperatures (K) ranging from 2500 to 10000 to suit your artistic vision.
We don’t suggest using Auto White Balance nor do we suggest using the Custom White Balance feature. Both are very limiting with the camera making the choice for you. Plus, the LCD screen on the back of the camera allows you to see the choices you make and you can quickly adjust from there if necessary. Once you learn to use K, you will wonder why you ever limited your options with the presets or, worse yet, Auto.
White Balance Options Indoors
The Perfect White Balance
The perfect white balance setting (just like perfect exposure) is simply whatever you like, whatever setting matches your vision. You dial in the white balance that makes your vision a reality and you’re done … nothing to it.
Controlling the amount of amber and blue in your image is easy. As you raise the Kelvin temperature setting in your camera (choosing higher settings) your image will seem warmer (more amber), as you lower the Kelvin temperature setting in your camera (choosing lower settings) the picture will appear cooler (more blue). Simply choose the temperature that best represents your vision.
NOTE: If you haven’t discovered (or examined) the white balance controls in your camera, now is the time. Look in your camera manual for manual white balance control.
Adjusting the White Balance
Setting the base Kelvin temperature is only your first step. You can also fine tune that decision. Since there are so many white balance options in your camera, the manufacturers have broken the procedure for choosing the setting into two stages.
- Choose a base Kelvin temperature setting.
- Fine-tune your option.
Picking your ‘base’ temperature is easy. Your camera will either allow you to choose it directly from 30 (or more) Kelvin temperature settings (often referred to as the ‘K’ method) or will limit you to a handful of presets. From this, you’ll then need to narrow your choice even more … using an entirely different control.
The Fine Tune Control – White Balance Shift
When changing Kelvin temperatures with the presets or by using the ‘K’ option, you are missing a lot of temperature settings that fall in between (more than 300). To locate those, your camera also offers a white balance ‘fine tune’ option. This lets you get to the rest of your choices (of which you have plenty).
To fine tune your white balance setting, you’ll need to find and then maneuver your fine-tune feature. Often this feature is connected to the white balance setting itself when approached through your camera’s menu system (look for WB Shift in Canon) and is usually represented with a colorful grid.
Outside this grid you’ll see four letters: B,G,A,M. The horizontal bar (B,A) represents your white balance fine tune control. With your camera’s control dial move the color marker (a small dot in the center) to the right to add Amber (turning the Kelvin temperature up). Moving the dot to the left adds Blue to the image (turning the Kelvin temperature down). Simply push the dot towards the color you want to add, this changes the white balance setting (the Kelvin temperature) slightly.
The vertical row with the letters G (Green) and M (Magenta) represent your in-camera ‘tint’ options. We’ll cover this a bit later.
In Review
The white balance control adds amber or blue to the image. Most people will adjust the white balance in their image to color correct under different lighting sources. But, you can also use your white balance options to add mood to your image or to change the colors that are present.
Key elements:
- Your in-camera white balance options give you control over the amount of amber and blue contained in your image.
- By choosing higher Kelvin temperatures in your camera, you are warming the picture (making it appear more amber).
- By choosing lower Kelvin temperature settings in your camera, you are cooling down your image (making it appear more blue).
- For total control over your white balance, your camera offers two controls (not one).
- Your base temperature is dialed in first, then your fine-tune option must be employed.
- You have more than 360 different white balance options to choose from.
Next: Essential Creative Option #8 – The Tint Control
This is post #10 of 16 of In Camera Magic: The 12 Essential Creative Options, a free online photography course for creating spectacular images right in the camera.