White Balance & ISO Digital Photography Apollo Technology Education

White Balance White balance (WB): the process of removing unrealistic color casts, so that objects which appear white in person are rendered or translated to the white in your photo. 

The importance of white balance. “Cameras are getting smarter and smarter, why should I care about white balance?” The best equipment is still effected. Majority of digital images are JPEG’s Must get it right the first time JPEG’s have less flexibility than RAW files Better image quality Success in most lighting situations

Outdoor Settings Automatic White Balance – the camera’s best guess. Daylight - bright, sunny days Shade – outdoor shade -AWB is generally a little off and only an approximation or guess by the camera. Cloudy – overcast, low contrast situations.

Indoor Settings Flash – equivalent or interchangeable to daylight on most cameras Fluorescent Light – artificial indoor lighting. Energy saver bulbs, tubes, etc. Tungsten: artificial indoor lighting. Traditional light bulbs with tungsten filament.

AWB vs. Tungsten

Advanced Settings Custom White Balance: calibrating the camera using a photo of the neutral white or light gray color of an object in a given situation. Kelvin (unit measurement for temperature) – uses a number or setting for a specific light source.

Kelvin Settings for light sources… Color Temperature Light Source 1000-2000 K  Candlelight 2500-3500 K  Tungsten Bulb (household variety) 3000-4000 K  Sunrise/Sunset (clear sky) 4000-5000 K  Fluorescent Lamps 5000-5500 K  Electronic Flash 5000-6500 K  Daylight with Clear Sky (sun overhead) 6500-8000 K  Moderately Overcast Sky 9000-10000 K  Shade or Heavily Overcast Sky

ISO ISO settings: the sensitivity of image sensor to the amount of light present. The higher the ISO, the more sensitive the image sensor. So, with less light, the higher the ISO needs to be.

ISO & “Noise” The higher the ISO setting the more “noise” or grainy the image becomes.

Range Recomendations ISO 80 - for taking photos in bright light; excellent for close-ups, landscape, and portraits. ISO 100 - for extra sensitivity with little, if any, reduced image quality. ISO 200 - cloudy and overcast days. Acceptable image quality, with some visible noise. ISO 400 - suitable for indoor photography whether or not a flash is used. Useful for “stop-action” and sports photographs. ISO 800, 1600 and above - useful for taking photos in very low light, or outside in good light when increased shutter speeds are required.