White balance - This is a parameter that helps to correctly build the transmission of a color image.
White balance
In short it is called simply BB (white balance), in English literature can be found WB (White balances)that does not change the essence.
This is very important parameter when creating color photography. He is responsible for color accuracy. Roughly speaking, white objects should be white and not have different shades of yellow or blue.
White balance helps the camera determine which light is considered white. Indeed - a camera, it is not the human eye that the powerful (or less powerful) brain carries out adjustments and sets the white color. The camera needs to somehow guess what is considered white. In this difficult task, the knowledge of the laws of physics helps the camera.
Let us superficially reveal the essence of the issue: according to thick textbooks, it is known that white is the color that gives an absolute black body (usually they use platinum), heated to a certain temperature. A certain temperature will give a certain wavelength, and the wavelength determines what we call color. The temperature is measured in Kelvin and, for example, they say that the temperature of daylight white light is 6500 K.
And what will happen if you heat less than 6500? Then we get a lower temperature, and it will correspond to a light of a yellow color - for example, a candle has a temperature in the region of 1800 K. Therefore, the candle gives off a yellowish warm light.
But what if heated more? There will be light with a temperature corresponding to different types of lamps with a bluish tint.
White balance - different BB settings
Why is it important to monitor BB? The answer is very simple, setting the correct white balance you can achieve the "right colors" in your picture. For example, for a portrait, the skin should have a natural color. If the BB is not installed correctly, the color will be mixed with yellowness or even worse with a touch of blue. You can see for yourself on the test pictures that are in this article and compare the appearance of the picture with different BB settings. The flowers are illuminated on the left by daylight from a window and from above on the right by an incandescent lamp, in this regard, light from different sources with different color temperatures is obtained and the camera finds it difficult to correctly set the BB. Pay attention to the difference between automatic balance and white sheet balance (predefined).
White Balance Adjustment
How to configure BB in the camera? Adjusting the white balance in the camera is simple, as almost all ordinary digital or digital SLR cameras have this function. Typically, the camera offers one of the preset BB profiles, for example, “sunny”, “cloudy”, “reflected light”, “incandescent lamp”, “flash” and, of course, “auto”. These standard settings are usually pictured and intuitive. For example, in the open air on a sunny day it would be wise to set the BB to “sunny” mode and thereby let the camera know that the BB is shifted to a hotter side. Similarly, in the evening with incandescent lamps you need to use the appropriate setting.
More advanced cameras have the ability setting the color temperature in Kelvin. The task is quite interesting and useful for visual study of BB.
White balance according to the template and with manual temperature setting
How to configure BB in Nikon cameras? Just press the WB button and use the multi selector to choose a preset option. Or select the PRE option, press the WB button again, point the camera at a white object and take a picture. The picture on the card cannot be recorded, but information about the color, which is considered white, will be taken from it. After a successful BB installation, the camera will write Good, if the camera could not correctly read the BB, the message No Good will appear and you will have to repeat the procedure again. You can also store BB samples in the camera’s memory and turn them on as needed. In more detail, only the instructions for the camera will help you, which I highly recommend studying.
Interesting thoughts: if you have an advanced camera and you can choose to set the color temperature manually, I advise you to conduct an experiment - take the same picture at the lowest possible camera temperature and the highest possible temperature, as shown in the examples. After comparison, most likely, understanding of how this parameter works is very fast.
How to configure BB properly? Very simple, you just need to tell the camera what exactly is considered white. To do this, you need to take a test picture in a special mode (the picture is frozen) by placing a white object in the center. Usually this method of installing BB is called white balance on a white sheet. This is the best option. But he, in my opinion, has a drawback. Personally, I often forget that I made a preset white balance and continue to shoot further when changing the location and light for shooting.
Do I need to constantly remember about BB? It all depends on the situation - when there is a lot of time and there is a desire to take the most "correct" picture - then white balance is an irreplaceable thing. But if the scenes and compositions change at tremendous speed, then I recommend using Auto White Balance. Modern, especially digital SLR, cameras do an excellent job of this. But still, in low light conditions, it will be difficult for the camera to choose the right color temperature. For the majority of people automatic white balance is enough, since it is sometimes very difficult to distinguish between pictures with different BBs.
If the white balance was not set correctly, the picture can still be saved. To do this, use a photo editor such as Photoshop or any other. You can set the color temperature in the editor; it is especially easy to do this by selecting a white object in the photo and using a pipette “take” a white sample. Very easy to pull BB out of RAW. I use a little trick when I shoot people, portraits, etc. and I want to stretch the correct white balance with RAW, then I expose the BB by pipetting along the white areas of the eyes.
By the way, professional BB cameras have a separate button for quick setup, just like ISO or image quality. That is, manufacturers themselves place great emphasis on setting the correct color temperature.
Hack and predictor Aviator: in almost all cases, when setting the white balance, you can rely on the automatic mode, in extreme cases, you can correct it with the editor. In an ideal embodiment, the BB is best set using a preset on a white sheet or plot.
Thank you for your attention and do not forget to press +1, tweet and like. Arkady Shapoval.
Thanks. Good article!
I liked the article very much. It is written clearly.
Arkady, do you by any chance conduct master classes for “dummies”?
Thanks for your feedback. I am conducting, now an article is being prepared on this topic, but we can’t finish the photos for the article :) In general, the best master class, this is to have at least a couple of hundred frames per week on your camera :)
Briefly and clearly, otherwise I couldn’t figure out what the white balance is and why it is needed. Thanks, I’ll try to put it into practice!
informative
Thanks for the articles and reviews, it’s very helpful. Everything is really clear, concise, short and clear.
Very nice article, thanks for the help in this matter.
Tips.Good, I didn’t use BB all the time. I worked on R. all the time. You think it’s going to put a machine for you. But it doesn’t turn out that way. This is not a very good photo in the building, but this is because you have to put BB in manually. Thank you.
thank you
Thanks! Cognitively.
Not at all.
Hi!
Explain please! If I do PRE BB, then how does this affect subsequent photos and how does the camera determine what and where to get it? Thanks!
The camera measures BB, the temperature value is stored all the time while PRE WB is on, each picture will have a BB from PRE WB metering until PRE WB is turned off. PRE WB works exactly like all other built-in BB corrections (shadow, sun, flash),
Thank you for the clarification!
It is a pity that not all cameras can set the temperature.
Thank you for the article!
Thank you so much! :)
I really liked the article !!!! Thank you for being so intelligible, simple and clear !!! learn the basics through your articles!
Thank you, Arkady, with the choice of BB it is clear, but how to judge the correctness of the choice of BB - by the camera monitor or by the computer monitor? On my camera (D7000) on the monitor when the WB is set to “auto” - all the colors are almost exactly the same as they really are, ie. in the process of shooting everything seems to be good. And when viewed on a computer monitor (certainly not an IPS-matrix, but still) it is not at all the same. Moreover, when printing (chemistry, sublimator, photo printer), the colors in the photo are close exactly to a computer monitor, but not to a camera monitor. The sRGB profile of the monitor, since it will not show others, and they print around almost only in sRGB. Can the color adjustment profile of the camera monitor Adobe RGB, and the computer monitor show its own - sRGB? I changed the settings of the computer monitor, but with the camera I couldn't get the colors. It turns out that you believe the camera's display of the color temperature, but you have to work with what is then on the computer monitor. Thanks!
This is a difficult matter to calibrate the monitor and printer.
changed the brightness of the camera monitor?
Hello! Firstly, thanks for the article. Everything is always very intelligible. In general, I’m glad that I’ve come across your site. Now I am a regular reader! Secondly, I am interested in the following question: how to correctly set the BB on a white sheet or on a gray card? Some sources mention the gray card. Thanks in advance! Julia.
The gray card is a white sheet with 18% gray. It is better to use a card, but the result from the usual white sheet is also very good.
Thank you Arkady! :-)
Arkady, maybe I’m not in the subject, but what does it mean overshot or overexposure?
Underlight - the picture is very dark, overexposure - a picture with overexposed areas, for more details see the section https://radojuva.com.ua/2012/07/exposure-compensation/
Good afternoon, Arkady. On my Nikon D50 camera, if the day is not summer, I most often use the “cloudy” WB mode (I shoot in JPEG). This gives me richer and brighter images. Is it correct to use only this mode when shooting outdoors if there is no bright sun? We do not take into account the measurement on a sheet of paper - for me this option is inconvenient for the same reasons that you indicated in the article.
WB “cloudy” or “cloudy” adds warm colors to the photo. Here the question is not “right / wrong”, but more “like / dislike”.
Thanks I'll know. You have a very interesting blog, I learned a lot for myself.
Thank you valuable information in your blog bookmark. You can always find a start from what to go on, and then as they say in this area there are no competitors.
An interesting article and very clearly written. Thanks a lot to the author!
But I noticed that often the colors of my photos suit me, and my friends are outraged by the settings of my BB. It seems to me that the perception of colors and shades for each person is different. Hence the different relations to the color temperature of the image.
Can someone write their opinion on this. It will be interesting.
The scientifically established fact that with age the color perception of people changes, it was established when they performed an operation on the eyes of one artist, he rewrote all his paintings, since he saw everything differently, as before.
This is not with age, he had a cataract.
Not only with age, as in the store, I asked the seller (man) to show me a turquoise cap, ... and he rushed about in search ...))
Therefore, if we consider examples of photos, then I like everything !!!
Good afternoon Arkady! Merry Christmas to you! Yes, you correctly noticed it, our science can not establish this. (Your answer dated January 04.01.2013, XNUMX)
Article Very informative, thank you Arkady! In poor lighting (in the apartment), without a flash, I got frames that were not bad, but with yellowness. I tried the settings in the camera (D3000), it didn’t work out better (worse often). Today I tried to configure it manually, using a white sheet, that's it it turned out! The colors are natural, without yellowness. Now the question is: do you need to shit on a fox every time the lighting changes, do I understand correctly?
It is advisable to tune each time, often, it is expensive.