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Don’t Be Blue (or Yellow)

What exactly IS white balance?

In ancient times, when people made photographs on strips of plastic coated with chemicals, there were basically two types of color film—daylight and tungsten. Most people used daylight film most of the time because, well, they shot most of their pictures outside in the daylight. (Electronic flash units emit daylight-colored light so things looked okay indoors too.) Professional photogs often used tungsten film when they were working indoors in places lit by—you guessed it—tungsten lights. Sometimes, if I had to move quickly from outside to in, I’d have to change the film in my camera, even if I’d only exposed a few frames. Then change it again when I went back out. Using daylight film indoors made everything look all orange; tungsten film made everything outside blue. And fluorescent lights were just a nightmare (unless you like sickly green).

Now, with digital cameras, we have white balance—and seven or so different settings for it that you can use on your camera. Most people leave it on Automatic all the time.

I’m not going to go into great technical detail. The important thing to know is that light has a color temperature that is measured in degrees Kelvin. (It has to do with ideal black-body radiators and things like that.) Daylight film was manufactured to make colors photographed in daylight look like they look to your eyes—to make white look white, red look red, etc. Ditto for tungsten film and things photographed when lit by incandescent light bulbs. White balance is the same—by setting the white balance, you are telling the sensor in your camera what kind of light is falling on the subject.

But light from the same source can be changeable. An old light bulb may give off light that is “warmer” than a new one. (We normally refer to light as either “warm” (more red) or “cold” (more blue). Lower degrees Kelvin are warmer, higher degrees are colder.) And now we are replacing old tungsten bulbs with those twisty compact fluorescents, which can be all over the place, Kelvin-wise.

More relevant to most of our photography, the color temperature of sunlight changes throughout the day—I’m sure you’ve noticed how early morning or late afternoon sunlight can look “golden.” The temperature of sunlight is also influenced by the amount of cloud cover and whether you are shooting in the open or in shade.

Most (but not all) outdoor pictures look best in the warmer light of early or late in the day. This is partly because we human beings find warm light to be pleasing. Colors look richer. It is also partly because the low sun casts long shadows from the side of our subjects and these shadows give a more three-dimensional “modeling” to them. Midday sun is both colder (bluer) and harsher, and, if you are photographing people, casts deep shadows under their eyes, noses, and chins. Not so pleasing.

It’s usually okay to leave your camera on Auto white balance mode. The amazing cameras we have these days seem to be able to figure out what should be white and make it so—then the other colors fall into place. But there are times when you don’t want things to have completely realistic color tones. Like the photo at right. As it is, you get the idea of fire right away because of the warm tone (well, because of the fire too). If it had been shot tungsten-balanced, the wall in the background would be a lot whiter and the picture would not feel the same. The same goes for candles and for any sort of indoor, light bulb-lit scene where you want to convey a feeling of warmth and coziness. Auto will probably want to set itself to tungsten, but a daylight exposure will often work better. It’s easy to see the difference. Just make an image of someone sitting next to a lamp—once with white balance set at tungsten and once with it set at daylight. Then just compare the images and see what you like best.

Which is really what it is all about. All your photos should look the way you want them to—the way that they convey the mood, feeling, or idea you are trying to get across. Sometimes this may mean shooting with a white balance that is technically too warm or too cold (or too weird. Try the experiment above with the camera set on fluorescent). Remember that I said that most (but not all) outdoor pictures look best in the warmer light of early or late in the day? There are times when harsh light and deep vertical shadows suit your subject, so use them.

Sometimes you don’t have a lot of choice. Monuments, statues, and buildings are often lit by mercury vapor or other odd kinds of lights that make poor little Auto go crazy. There’s really no “correct” way to shoot this kind of picture—it’s really up to you to decide which white balance setting gives you the color rendition you like best. Like the picture (above) of the Lincoln Memorial. Daylight looks too orangey. Tungsten is too cold and green. I actually like the fluorescent white balance best in this case. But every monument is different, so experiment.

Like I did with this head of Ramses II. His head and the wall behind were lit by different kinds of lights so it was impossible to white balance. This was the best I could do.

TIP: Another (of the many) benefit of shooting your images in RAW mode is that you can change the white balance later, when you are sitting comfortably at home in front of your computer. Play around with different ones. Remember—your images should look the way you want them to.

The best way to learn about white balance is to go out and make several exposures of the same thing with different white balance settings. Look at the images and see what effect the different settings have. Think about what mood you want your picture to convey, what feeling, and use a setting that will give you that look. Or set your white balance to Auto, your image capture to RAW and forget about it!

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