Ever photographed a white bird only to come home and find your white bird turned a bit green? Or pink, or purple ... and the colour looks a bit, well... weird? 😩 Or unnatural even?? You can blame white balance for that!
White balance is a critical concept in photography that helps ensure that colours in your photos appear natural and consistent, regardless of the lighting conditions under which the photo was taken. The photo looks more natural without post processing.
The difference is white balance. I do lean towards slightly warmer images, and having the correct white balance setting is a crucial step - but that is also personal preference and does depend on the setting. Yep it's that 'depends' word again! 😂
What is White Balance?
White balance is the process of adjusting the colours in an image so that they appear more natural and true to life. This adjustment compensates for the colour temperature of the light source that illuminates the scene. Different light sources emit light at different colour temperatures, which can affect how colours appear a photograph.
Colour Temperature
Colour temperature is measured in Kelvin (K), a unit of measurement for temperature. It is named after the physicist William Thomson, also known as Lord Kelvin, and describes the colour of the light emitted by a source.
The Kelvin scale is an absolute temperature scale, meaning it starts from zero (0 K), where all thermal motion ceases. It’s often used in scientific contexts, but in photography, it specifically refers to the colour temperature of light rather than of thermal temperature.
The Kelvin scale ranges from warm (yellow/red) to cool (blue). Here are some common examples:
Candlelight: 1,000 - 2,000K (very warm, orange)
Tungsten Bulb: 2,500 - 3,000K (warm, yellow)
Sunrise/Sunset: 3 ,000 - 4,000K (warm, golden)
Daylight/Midday Sun: 5,000 - 6,500K (neutral, white)
Overcast Sky: 6,500 - 8,000K (cool, bluish)
Shade: 8,000 - 10,000K (very cool, blue)
Why White Balance Matters
Incorrect white balance can cause a colour cast in your photos, making them look unnatural. This can be really obvious when shooting white birds, which is often when the wrong setting really becomes an issue. Adjusting the white balance corrects this colour cast and renders the whites as neutral, which in turn ensures all other colours appear correctly.
White Balance Settings
Most digital cameras offer several white balance presets and the ability to manually adjust it, which go something like this:
Auto White Balance (AWB):The camera automatically detects and adjusts the white balance.
Daylight/Sunny: Best for shooting outdoors under direct sunlight.
Shade: Compensates for the cooler (bluer) light in shaded areas.
Cloudy: Slightly warms up the image to counteract the cool light of an overcast sky.
Tungsten/Incandescent: Corrects the warm, yellowish light emitted by tungsten bulbs.
Fluorescent: Balances the greenish-blue hue typical of fluorescent lighting.
Flash: Adjusts for the cooler light produced by a camera's flash.
Custom/Manual: Allows you to set the white balance by referencing a neutral gray or white object in the scene.
Custom White Balance
For precise control, you can can manually set the white balance using a grey card or a white object, or just manually set the Kelvins in-camera while checking through the viewfinder. This method is especially useful in challenging lighting conditions where the camera's presets might not produce desirable results.
Can't I just do it in Post-Processing?
If you're shooting in RAW format, white balance can be adjusted successfully after taking the photo using software like Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop. RAW provides greater flexibility than JPEGS, as RAW files contain all the colour data and allow for more precise adjustments without degrading the image quality. BUT... There is no substitute for getting it at least 90% right in the field - and saves you more time editing which is a big win for me!
Tips for Getting White Balance Right
I do it the easy way - I simply choose the preset that best matches the shooting environment. I don't want to faff around in the field trying to select Kelvins. It's only a few seconds to run through the presets. This works for me 99% of the time.
If you happen to have a white object or bird nearby to point at it's an easy choice to pick the one that looks the most natural and where your whites are white, not blue, pink, yellow or green!
I will consider using a custom white balance for tricky lighting with unusual light sources, usually when I'm shooting at night with a mix of natural and artificial light - the below Nankeen Night Heron was illuminated by a street light making him luminous green! I used a custom setting plus another small adjustment with Lightroom's white balance editing tools to correct it.
Shooting in RAW format allows you to have maximum flexibility in adjusting white balance in post-processing, so you can tweak a bit more when you get home if you need to.
Another bonus of setting white balance manually is it does give you the ability to 'extend' that desirable warm light of the early morning or late afternoon to a degree. It can't completely fix wrong light, but it can go a long way to getting a better result in less-than-optimum conditions. Try it for yourself!
White balance is essential for achieving true-to-life colours in your photography, making it a fundamental skill for any nature photographer.
Paying attention to white balance is well worth the few seconds it takes to check your settings each time you venture out, and it doesn't hurt to adjust as the light or conditions change either.
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