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7:
White Balance
 The two images above were taken at nearly the same time with the same settings except for the white balance. The image on the left has a white balance setting of sunny, the one on the right is set to tungsten giving it a slightly cooler feel. White balance is a new dimension to take into consideration for people moving from film cameras to digital cameras. All digital cameras have an automatic white balance function that makes the choice for you but may not make the choice that is accurate or the one you would prefer. Light has a temperature rating called Kelvin. A scientist named William Kelvin developed this in the late 1800's. This temperature effects different light sources such as fluorescent or incandescent light, giving the image different characteristics such as a different hue or color cast. As well, the sun has different light characteristics according to the time of day, whether it is cloudy, or the time of year, etc. These lighting differences can be very warm which gives a yellow, orange, or red cast to the image or very cool which gives a blue, violet, or grey characteristic to the image. Learning to use the manual white balance function on your digital camera adds a new dimension of control that is very important to the look and feel of your images. |