Custom White Balance.... Why?

One of the most over looked and least understood features of your camera is your "Custom Whilte Balance". Adjusting your camera's White Balance is critical to help the camera correctly capture color. Your camera unlike your eye does not do a great job at determining what is white and what is not from which all other color are judged.

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Thinking about White Balance

I've been wanting to explore "White Balance" for some time.  I could elaborate about the Auto White Balancesubject but there are several good sources that have already been created that I'll point you to in just a second.

One thing that has held me back from setting it up in my camera was the lack of a tool.  Another gadget, I assumed, was what I needed. But reading my camera manual (now that is a novel idea!) suggested that a good piece of white paper would work out fine.  Visiting the "Digital Photography School" they made the same suggestion.  I'm sure that some of the gadgets sold might do a better job and/or be more consistent but in a pinch white paper will do.

Our eyes can adjust to the effects of color change in light from source to source. Our eyes will see white as white out in the sun or under a tungsten light bulb.  But a camera, like a computer, is quite dumb and though it may do a pretty good job automatically determining what is white in most photographs, it might be best to preset the white balance in the camera before shooting a critical shot.

Our digital camera, I'm sure like many others, has the ability to save white balance for later use.

This evening I was playing with the camera in a rather dark room.  We have two "natural light" florescent bulbs in use and I had the camera remember what a white sheet of paper looked like under those lighting conditions.

I madeCustom White Balance two shots of  the far wall which was light blue in color near one of the "natural light" bulbs. The first shot was done in Auto White Balance (AWB) and the second shot with the setting that I had the camera remember.

The difference was amazing. Generally the AWB does a good job, but I suspect in the poor light conditions that camera was having a hard time determining what was white..... The colors in the second shot, with the correct WB set, were much closer to what they actually were or as I actually saw them.

Here are two links that discuss "White Balance".  The first is an Introduction to White Balance, the second is about using white balance as a creative tool.  The third link I'd love to put in here but I can't link to your camera's manual, you'll just have to pull it out and go to the discussion on "White Balance" yourself.