The Camera - White Balance

     The definition of white balance in the simplest terms is any additional adjustments made to the colors and lighting of the photos to make the photo appear more natural during the final post production stage. It is important to adjust any cast colors to make the picture look more like the original because every source of light emits different color temperatures. Our brains are able to adjust the temperatures and colors of what you are viewing to change how you view a scene. Most DSLR camera's are somewhat capable of accomplishing similar results, but the only difference from the human eye is the camera is only able to guess the temperature color based off ambient light. While a DSLR is only able to take mostly accrete photos of a scene's temperature, it can run into some errors when taking shots in unusual type of lighting the camera does not recognize. 

How is color temperature measured?

    The temperature of a photo taken with a DSLR is measured in kelvin units. If the photo has a lot of colors to begin with, then the kelvin value would be lower, while a photo with not much color to begin with would have a higher kelvin value. An example of when a high kelvin value is useful could be during a overcast day with very little colors present. The camera will try to guess what colors should be added into the photo that weren't there to begin with. 

Why should a photographer know how to change the white balance of their camera?

    It is important for a photographer to know this skill because sometimes this setting can either make or brake the appearance of a photo if it is set incorrectly. It is though sometimes possible to fix the photo with post production editing software on a computer, but isn't always possible to get back the original appearance of the photo back.

Examples of high white balance vs low


The photo taken on the left is a photo of an American Robin that was taken with natural lighting and coloring, while the photo off to the right was taken with an artificial color temperature and also lacks a large amount of white balance.
 






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