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White Balance
Understanding White Balance and color temperatures
Taking great photographs indoors with a digital camera is often difficult because the artificial light
sources cause an effect called color cast. Different types of light
sources produce different temperatures of light, which in turn shift the colors
in images either toward red (lower temperatures) or blue (higher temperatures).
The most common of these problems occur under incandescent lighting (your
pictures turn out yellow or orange) or fluorescent lighting (your pictures turn
out blue). For example, notice how the following photo taken under incandescent
spotlights has a distinct yellowish tint to it:
To compensate for this, digital cameras have a setting called White Balance.
The various White Balance settings are pretty much self-explanatory:
- Daylight - For taking pictures in direct sunlight.
- Incandescent - For taking pictures under incandescent light bulbs.
- Fluorescent - For use under fluorescent lighting fixtures.
- Cloudy - For use when the sky is cloudy or overcast.
This is how a scene under the same lighting turned out after switching the
digital camera's
White Balance setting to Incandescent:
Note: Even when you have the White Balance set to match the light source,
some color cast can still occur. This residual color cast can be further
minimized or even eliminated by adding as much natural light to the scene
as possible by opening window blinds, shades and doors.
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"Digital Photography Primer"
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