1. The Importance of White Balance in Digital Photography Woodlands Photography Club June 2010 Don Rueter

2. White Balance Critical to “look” of the photograph Instructs camera computer how to interpret colors it sees Set based on temperature (degrees Kelvin) of the primary light source Incorrect White Balance can cause colors that are too warm (red) or too cool (blue)

3. White Balance Goal Achieve a neutral colorcast in your photo Get whites to look white Get colors to look like what you saw when you took the photo

4. White Balance Importance JPEG vs. RAW When true color rendition is critical –Weddings –Portraits –Product Photos

5. Setting White Balance Before shooting –Auto –Camera Menu choices (e.g., direct sunlight, cloudy, shade, flash, fluorescent (7 choices), incandescent, set color temp) –Manual Preset Gray card photo Expodisc Neutral color photo

6. Adjusting White Balance After shooting –JPEG – not directly adjustable –RAW – fully adjustable in most processing software Menu choices Gray card photo White point/Gray point tools

7. Examples Hi Temp Merc Vapor (7200K) Sodium Vapor (2700K)

8. Examples AUTO WB Cool White Fluorescent (4200K)

9. Examples Incandescent (3000K) Set Gray Point on Cheerleader’s Arm

10. Examples AUTO WB Set Gray Point on Cheerleader’s Arm