When we see white, we never consider how the lighting in that particular environment is, or what color cast is prevailing. We see white for white regardless. Our cameras can do this too, but you’re no amateur now, are you?

The light around us, whether natural or man-made, emits a certain color cast / tint based on the environment, or in the case of man-made, how they were designed. This unwanted color tint caused by the light in a scene makes your images look unnatural. This is where the white balance setting comes to the rescue, allowing us to dial in our camera’s ability to see white for white in any scenario, regardless of the prevailing color cast. It's the secret sauce that ensures your photos depict colors accurately and convey the right mood.

Simple enough concept, but since you're on your professional journey, allow me to elaborate further for a clearer picture:

What is White Balance?

White balance, as the name suggests, refers to the process of adjusting your camera to render colors accurately to ensure white objects appear truly white, regardless of the lighting conditions.

Adjusting the white balance setting is thus the process of ensuring that the colors in your photographs appear as accurate and natural as they do to the human eye. It's all about achieving the right color temperature in your images, so whites appear truly white, and other colors are faithfully rendered. While our eyes naturally adapt to these color shifts, cameras need guidance to replicate natural color casts.

White balance is gauged by the color temperature of the light source and its accompanying color cast in a particular scenario, which is measured in Kelvin (K). Cooler temperatures having a bluish tint (e.g., 5000K for daylight) and warmer temperatures appearing more orange (e.g., 2700K for incandescent lighting).

Auto White Balance (AWB) 🤝

Your camera will come out of the box set on a white balance setting called Auto White Balance (AWB), where the camera's internal algorithms will automatically determine the appropriate white balance based on the lighting conditions and prevailing color casts. While AWB is convenient and often reliable, it occasionally produces inaccurate colors, especially in mixed lighting scenarios.

White balance presets ✅

For the very scenarios that AWB can falter, there exists a selection of inbuilt white balance settings for greater control over white balance. This feature allows you to fine-tune white balance to match the specific lighting conditions, ensuring that the colors in your photographs are as closely matched to reality as possible.

1. Daylight (5500K): Setting your camera to 5500K is ideal for capturing scenes under natural daylight. It maintains a balanced color temperature, ensuring that whites appear neutral and colors are vivid.

   
   
   

2. Cloudy (approx. 6500K): On cloudy or overcast days, the light has a cooler, bluer tone. Using a white balance setting of around 6500K compensates for this and adds warmth to your images, making them feel cozier.

   
   
   

3. Shade (approx. 7500K): Shooting in the shade can introduce strong blue tones into your photos. Setting your white balance to 7500K counteracts this, rendering colors more accurately.

   
   
   

4. Tungsten (approx. 3200K): Tungsten lighting, like that produced by incandescent bulbs, is warm and tends to cast an orange hue on your photos. Setting your camera to 3200K neutralizes this, ensuring that whites appear white, not orange.

   
   
   

5. Fluorescent (approx. 4000K-5000K): Fluorescent lighting can create a greenish or bluish cast in your images. Adjusting your white balance within the range of 4000K to 5000K helps correct this.

   
   
   

6. Flash (5500-5600K): When using an external or built-in flash, a white balance setting of 5500K matches the color temperature of the flash to daylight, creating a natural look.

   
   
   

7. Custom White Balance: For precision in challenging lighting conditions, you can create a custom white balance by photographing a neutral gray or white card under the same lighting conditions as your subject. This ensures utmost color accuracy, but honestly is an extra step compared to this next, arguably an easier and more professional setting.

Manual Kelvin setting 💯

A manual Kelvin white balance setting allows you the professional to, as the name suggests, dial in the exact desired kelvin temperature. It is useful when the prevalent color of light in the scenario you're shooting in, is different from the preset white balance modes (Tungsten, Daylight, Shade, etc). This mode will be denoted by a K in your camera’s white balance settings page, with a temperature scale ranging from 2500K (very warm, deep yellow tint) to 10000K (very cool, deep blue tint). 

This is admittedly a highly professional feature that allows you to really fine tune the color casts of your photos in-camera. However, as is the nature of photography, this opens yet another avenue for your creative expression and experimentation. A good rule of thumb is to start at 5000K, as that temperature is very close to our natural perception, and proceed up-down the temperature scale to suit your creative vision.

Creative White Balance 🌟

Carrying forward the creative prospects of using the manual kelvin mode, here are some scenarios through which you can induce different moods and deliver different feelings through your photos:

1. Cool and Blue Tones: Choosing a higher Kelvin value like 7000K (cooler temperature) can infuse your images with a serene, chilly, or ethereal quality. This is perfect for capturing the mood of a winter wonderland or an otherworldly landscape.

   
   

2. Warm and Golden Tones: Lower Kelvin values like 3000K (warmer temperature) can add a sense of coziness, nostalgia, or romance to your photos. It's an excellent choice for enhancing the warmth of a sunset or creating a vintage vibe.

   
   

3. Color Shifting: Experimenting with unconventional Kelvin settings to influence the conventional color castes for given lighting scenarios can introduce subtle color shifts, which can lend an artistic and surreal quality to your photographs.

Kelvin Settings in Post-Processing 💻

While achieving precise white balance in-camera is ideal, taking a second look at your photos in an editing software, like Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom, may spark your creative vision and prompt you to make a change to the photo’s color cast. This is why it is a non-negotiable to always shoot RAW, especially now that you’re on your journey to becoming a professional.

Editing softwares allow you to change color casts between greens and purples, in addition to making changes to the white balance temperature. Also, for even greater control over different color casts for different areas of exposure within your photo (highlights and shadows), the color grading option will come in handy. You can also choose to completely suppress or emphasize certain colors.

Admittedly again, these are highly professional editing tools that can easily overwhelm you, so be open to regularly experimenting with them in your editing weapon of choice! 

In summary 🥂

One of my favorite quotes from the world of photography says: 

“White balance control makes you the master of capturing the colors of the world”

Whether you’re aiming for utmost technical precision, or following your creative vision, white balance control allows you to capture the world with accuracy, evoke emotions through colors, and tell unique stories. And while I lament the under-appreciation of the simplicity, impactfulness and the imaginative nature of  black and white photography as much as the next art connoisseur, we have always seen the world in color and modern photography has caught up to us.

Your vision of the world around you is one aspect, which when paired with white balance control through your camera, sets the tone for the photos you capture while on your journey to becoming a professional shooter.