What Is White Balance?

What is white balance and how does it work?

Has your photo suddenly turned much more yellow or blue than you expected, and you have no idea why? It’s very likely due to your white balance settings. But what exactly is white balance, and how should you set it? We explain it all below!

What is white balance?

Every light source has its own colour. Artificial light and daylight differ in colour, even though we don’t always notice this ourselves. Because of this, photos taken under different lighting conditions can look very different. To correct this, you need to adjust the white balance. When you set the right white balance for the right lighting conditions, the colours in your photo will look more natural.

We don’t always notice these colour differences because our brain corrects them for us. For example, when you read a book indoors under artificial light or outdoors in daylight, the pages look white in both situations. In reality, artificial light and daylight have very different colour compositions. Artificial light is often reddish or yellowish, while daylight is bright white. You also notice colour differences when taking photos at different times of the day. White balance exists to ensure that colours are corrected appropriately for the lighting conditions. White balance is indicated using colour temperature, measured in Kelvin.

Colour cast

If the white balance is incorrect, you’ll get the wrong colours. A colour appears in your photo that you didn’t see with the naked eye. This unwanted tint is called a colour cast. For example, if your white balance is set to tungsten light on a sunny day, your photo will look much bluer. If you set the white balance to daylight while shooting indoors under artificial light, your photo will turn too yellow.

How do you set the white balance?

You can choose to leave the white balance on automatic, in which case the camera decides the best settings for the moment. You can also set the white balance manually. To make things easier, most cameras have presets for adjusting white balance. Here’s a brief explanation:

• Auto: This automatic mode lets the camera choose the white balance. It’s especially helpful if you’re not entirely sure what white balance is or how to use it.
• Daylight: Use this mode when shooting outdoors. However, it can sometimes be inaccurate, as not every daylight situation is the same—morning light is different from midday light.
• Shade: Shade often produces slightly cool-toned photos. Setting the white balance to Shade warms up those darker shadow tones.
• Cloudy: When shooting on a cloudy day, you can set your camera to this mode. The light is usually even, with a consistent colour temperature, and clouds act like a giant softbox. (If you want to take beautiful autumn photos, this mode is useful too—autumn colours really pop.)
• Tungsten/Incandescent: Ideal for indoor photography where incandescent bulbs are present. This setting adds cooler tones, reducing the red/orange cast from the lights.
• Fluorescent: When shooting in buildings with fluorescent lighting, this mode warms up the cool tones produced by fluorescent lamps.
• Flash: This mode compensates for the light from a (external) flash. Flash can make a photo look cool and blue.
• Manual: Use this mode when determining white balance yourself, for example with a grey card or a white surface.

Don’t forget to change your settings again when moving from indoors to outdoors, or you’ll end up with incorrect colours!

Getting creative with white balance

Of course, it’s not always important for the colours to be perfectly accurate. Sometimes you may want to give your photo a certain mood. For example, using a cool white balance on a summery photo can make it look much colder. Or when shooting a sunset, it can be beautiful to filter out more blue tones and enhance the reds.

You can also adjust the white balance later in editing software like Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom. It’s important to shoot in RAW, as this file type retains much more colour information for adjustment. This allows you to decide exactly which mood you want your photo to convey.

You might not get the perfect settings for the lighting right away—but don’t worry. Learning to estimate the right setting for the right light takes practice. Over time, you’ll develop a feel for it, and you’ll notice things go right more and more often. So get out there in different lighting conditions, and before you know it, you’ll have complete control over the white balance in your photos.

Everything about white balance in about 3 minutes