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Take Your Best Photo With The Right White Balance
How can we keep the original colors in the photo, those colors, that we
see in the viewfinder? Why do the colors look cool even if we shoot in
the sunny weather? And finally, why do we get the orange and yellow or
blue and green faces in the picture?
The key to answer all of these questions is white balance.
It is one of the most important tool of photographer's work. If you
understand how you can manage the white balance, you'll be able to
receive original colors in the picture.
In this article we'll
touch upon the principles of white balance control, meaning the
principles of color management of an image.
What is White Balance?
Spectral
composition of light, reflected from the lens, depends on the color
temperature of the lighting source. Human brain can adapt to the
changes of lighting conditions, that is why we perceive white color
despite of the white objects' location - in the shade, under the
straight sun rays or illuminated by the lamp. In other words, white balance is how your camera "sees" the white color, and the rest of the colors in the image.
Digital cameras,
unlike film cameras, can be adjusted with the color temperature of the
lighting source, - we call it white balance adjustments. If you want to
get natural colors in the picture, you need to set the right value of
white balance, corresponding to the lighting source.
In film cameras
the right white balance is set with the help of conversion filters
(which change the color temperature), as well as the right selected
type of film (considering the ISO value for particular shooting
conditions).
Ideal White Balance
A
perfect shot should look in such a way, so that the colors would be
illuminated by neutral white color. But such conditions can only be
found in photo studios, and especially in those, where the walls are painted in neutral gray.
But don't try to search for ideal white balance - it may not be needed in most of the situations. For example, in the artistic photo
you can use white balance as a tool of creating a nice mood in the
picture. The rest of the shots may require truthful values of the white
balance.
Controlling White Balance
In
digital cameras the white balance is always set in the menu. But that
would be enough only for the studio, where all of the lighting sources
have the same color temperature, and their light is not reflected from
the colored walls. In that case you can set the precise color
temperature (K).
In other cases the white balance is always
changeable and quite unpredictable. It is particularly seen during the
reportage shooting, where the places and lighting conditions change
rather quickly.
If you shoot in the RAW format, you can easily
change the white balance. There's a setting of white balance control in
RAW-converters, where you can select either the type of lighting, or
choose auto mode.
If you are not satisfied with the results you
can use the eyedropper to choose your own color temperature. Besides
the accurate color rendering, manual work with color temperature gives
you the possibility for artistic image editing.
In digital cameras there is a function of white balance estimation by a shot for more accurate white balance rendering.
- You should photograph a white paper sheet, set an option of Custom White Balance in your camera and choose the image with white paper.
- Another
way is to use the Gray Card, because the gray color is less exposed to
light impact and distortions. Before the shooting you need to take a
picture with the gray card (as it's shown in the photo). Then during
editing in RAW-converter you can just click on this gray area with the
eyedropper to receive the correct white balance. These settings can
father be applied to the whole batch of photos.
So, why is the
gray color so peculiar? The matter is that the 100% white paper is a
myth. In paper production different colorants are used for whitening,
and gray card is guaranteed to be the mix of black and white colors.
During editing the gray card will be used as a color standard and the
other colors will be changed accordingly.
Unfortunately, the
drawback is that the Gray Card can be used only with the constant
lighting conditions, meaning in studio. In other cases the lighting may
change and the white balance will not correspond to the new shooting
environment. So you won't be able to apply the settings to the series
of photos.
Summary
If you want to represent the true colors in your shot, there are three tips to keep in mind about White Balance:
1. All of the image colors depend on the white balance.
2. If the lighting conditions are changed, the white balance should be adjusted anew.
3. The exact white balance can be set with the help of the gray card at the constant lighting conditions.
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