Make Your Photos Glow by Using White Balance

Every source of light has a specific color temperature that determines its actual color. Color temperature is measured in degrees Kelvin. Your eye compensates for the different colors of radiation and converts as much as possible to its assigned color without you even knowing it. Using the White Balance requires an understanding of how digital cameras record light.

Cameras operate differently than our eyes. You must instruct the digital camera to record in a specific visible spectrum of light. Whatever light doesn't share that same wavelength shows up as a different color.

For example, daylight is measured at 5500 to 5800 degrees Kelvin. That's high up on the scale and indicates the radiation frequency is in the bluer part of the visible spectrum. If you think about it, there are times when sunlight does appear more blue than white.

Artificial or incandescent light is measured at 3000 to 3400 degrees Kelvin and falls within the reddish-orange section of the visible light spectrum. This is what accounts for the soft, warm glow of most house lamps.

So what does all of this have to do with digital photography? Plenty. The camera will only shoot a specific degree Kelvin and therefore, if you set the camera at 5500 degrees (daylight) as the White Point, all daylight will photograph as white light.

Tungsten lamps will appear quite orange with this setting. If you set the camera to 3200, then daylight appears blue and the artificial lamp light appears white. All digital cameras have at least three settings for White Balance - Daylight, Tungsten and a manual Sample.

The manual sample allows you to tweak the White Point depending on how many mixed light sources there might be or if you're not getting the exact color of daylight or tungsten that you desire. Some lamps are warmer than others and at different times of the day, sunlight has a different quality to it as well.

What you do if you are in any mixed light or rare light, is find something that you know is white, like a sheet of paper or a T-shirt. Hold the white object underneath the light source and fill the frame with that object.

Then select the manual Sample and engage it. The camera will adjust the White Point so that the paper or T-shirt is now your reference "White Point." Then you can photograph your scene with more accurate colors.

Many photographers like color imbalance though. Who hasn't seen that photo of the restaurant at night with its warm romantic glow? That's because the camera's WB was set for daylight, yet shot under tungsten lamps.

You'll want to experiment with this quite a bit because understanding the White Balance and how to set the White Point gives you another great tool for your digital photo tool box. Make your photos glow by experimenting with White Balance!

Kurt Hansen

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