Understanding White Balance

        First of all you have to have some understanding of what white balance is.  White Balance,  will be referred to as WB from now on.  So, WB is a process your camera uses to remove untrue colors from your picture.  The digital camera uses a number of processes to calculate the correct WB.  Most digital cameras these days have an Auto White Balance (AWB), or a manual WB.  The WB is measured from the temperature of the light, and no it doesn't measure the amount of heat, but rather the coolness (blueish color) or the warmth (orangeish color) coming from the light source.  Now you may be in situations where you have multiple light sources, such as, sun light protruding through a window, with a flourescent light hanging above.  In these situations your camera, if set to AWB, will try to correct the WB, which usually results in an innaccurate representation of the color your eye is seeing.  If this happens, try to experiment with the Manual White Balance.  See the pictures below, I did most of the WB changes during post processing.  The following are from the local fair, and were taken on 01/13/2012, enjoy.

This photo was taken right before sunset. 
The WB was set to cloudy in the camera.

 

The same photo changed to Black and White,

and an increase in contrast and brightness.

This is the picture above, except the WB is

moved towards the warm, or sunny side.

Same photo, with the WB moved

towards the cool, or cloudy side.

        Well, if nothing else, I hope you enjoyed the pictures.  Maybe now you have a little bit more knowledge of what WB is.  While your here, browse around the site a bit, I have some educational videos on the bottom of the page.  Thanks for stopping by, and remember you can always email me with your own tips or photos, I will be creating a page where I will showcase your best work as soon as I get enough photos.

 

Please feel free to share my photos, all I ask is that you

link the photo back to http://www.tesarphoto.blogspot.com