What is white balance?
What is white balance?
In a simple definition, white balance in digital photography or white balance is adjusting the color in photography to create an image with natural colors. The amount of warmth and coldness of the colors in your photo changes by changing the white balance. It is very important to understand the concept of white balance and how it works in digital photography. Because its incorrect setting will cause your photos to have an inappropriate color. Adding any wrong color will make the colors in the photo (like skin tone) look unnatural. The reason for the difference in the white level in different places is because the light color temperature of each environment is different from another environment, for example, the color temperature of sunlight is different from fluorescent lamp.
How to change the white balance in the camera
How to set white balance depends on the exact camera you are using. Each brand and model has its own methods to do it. Most cameras have a WB button accessible on the camera body. On other cameras, usually entry-level cameras, the White Balance setting is found somewhere in the camera menus. We’ve talked about this before in our Nikon photography course, so you know that your white balance settings are the same on most digital cameras. Here is a list of seven semi-automatic modes, one automatic mode and one manual mode. This setting is used to neutralize colors in certain lighting scenarios using a preset combination of Kelvin and color. They do a good job in most situations, but sometimes you have to adjust them manually.
Adjusting White Balance in photo editing software
If the photo was taken in RAW format, you can change the white balance settings in photo editing software such as Adobe Lightroom. Because in this case, the photo is recorded intact and raw in the RAW file format, and it is possible to make many changes in it. But if the photo is recorded in JPEG format, you need more time and work and face more limitations. The best way is to use the automatic mode and record the image in RAW format so that you can easily apply the desired changes to it.
Notes about white balance
Certain objects cause problems for a digital camera’s automatic white balance settings, even in natural lighting conditions. An example of this is when an image is too cool or warm in color temperature due to the unique nature of the subject.
The image below shows a situation where the subject is distinctly red, and thus the camera mistakes it for a monochromatic cast induced by a warm light source. Then the camera tries to compensate for this, so the average color of the image is closer to neutral colors, but while doing this, the camera unknowingly creates a blue shade on the rocks. Some digital cameras are more prone to make this mistake compared to other cameras. When taking a panoramic photo for a virtual tour, be sure to pay attention to the white balance and that it is the same in all images.