![]() One of the characteristics of the environment, at any given time, is the color temperature of the light. I think this is especially true for almost any photo taken outdoors, where the environment is part of the image. Light has a color and in many cases you should embrace it, not cancel it out. I think the biggest misconception with white balance (and one that I rarely see discussed) is the idea that white should always be white. So don’t think you can switch between the auto white balance in camera and Lightroom, as can be seen in the example below. But a simple white balance slider in Lightroom has a complete different way of reading the image. In camera it can be quite good, especially the modern cameras have a sophisticated algorithm that can "read" the scenery and anticipate. I also would like to warn on how eradicate auto white balance can be. I would advise to experiment with it, to see if it suits your photography. You might think auto white balance is better in that case, but JPEG shooters may benefit even more from it, since the setting is fixed in the JPEG. When using a fixed white balance setting, make sure you are using the correct setting, because you won’t be able to change it back. I do need to give a warning for photographers that prefer to shoot in jpeg, and don't want to use raw. I changed my white balance to 4000K (Canon EOS 5D IV EF16-35L 16mm | ISO1600 | f/5,6 | 30sec) So why not using a fixed white balance? This prevents unwanted corrections by the auto white balance system, and it makes post-processing of large series of images much, much faster.Ī night scene from the village of Gjøgv at the Faroër Islands. A series of images from a wedding shoot is a perfect example every image needs to have the same color balance. This also works for photographers who shoot a lot of images in a short amount of time, in a setting where the light situation doesn’t change a lot. And I think the daylight white balance setting is the best "neutral" setting available. ![]() But I prefer to judge this from a consistent color balance throughout the series of photos I have. That is one of the strengths of shooting raw, of course. And if you think one image needs a bit of fine tuning after all, it is always possible. It takes an extra step when I need to correct all images to the same color temperature to make comparison and the selection process easier. Auto white balance will calculate and possibly set a (slight) different color temperature for every image, depending on what is in the frame and what colors are present.Įven more important, I find the difference in white balance settings to be distracting in post-processing. I have found it is much easier to judge an image on the LCD screen of my camera when there is no difference in color between images. Nevertheless, I don’t want my camera to calculate a white balance setting for every single image I make. I also shoot my images in raw, of course. And that is true, this camera setting can be changed without any problem. I know what some of you might think when you shoot in raw file format, you have the ability to change white balance (or color balance) in post processing, without any degradation or loss in quality. As a matter of fact, these images have no post-processing whatsoever. I did this at the spot, on the camera, and not afterwards in post processing. ![]() I took two pictures of every scene, with the white balance set to auto and daylight. To have an idea what the difference is between auto white balance and a fixed daylight setting, I shot different scenes during one single morning. I always use daylight ("daglicht" in the images below) setting, approximately 5200K, which is imitating the daylight film from the analogue days. Changes in ambient colors will be much clearer visible on screen because there is no system trying to take out any excesses in color casts. When using a fixed white balance setting, you get a consistent color balance throughout a series of photos. Although I cannot check what effect the auto white balance would have given, the colors have turned out perfect with daylight setting. Back in 2015 I witnessed an amazing sunset with intense colors.
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