White Balance - Why it is so Important

White Balance is a term that takes a back seat at times, but can be the game changer between your photos turning out beautiful or seriously yucky. I said it, yucky. Your house happens to be a little dark inside, and when you take a portrait of your baby (with your camera on auto), it looks like someone smeared a dirty orange peel over your lens. We all have them; these annoying orange photos, thanks to tungsten light!

SO you decided to head outside into the shade with your cute baby, but when you take the photo on Auto White Balance, the whole photo now looks blue. How can we correctly show the colors of light, that our eyes so easily adjust to, but our cameras sometimes don't?

WHITE BALANCE!

I promise you it will change your life. Listen up. 

Every light source has within it, a certain color of light. White Balance refers to how accurate the colors in your photos show. It's easy to think of it as how warm or cool your images turn out. Some photos have a bad color cast to them, making white not look like true white. If we understand how to set our White Balance to match our lighting scenario, we can drag these yucky photos to the trash can and start getting images with great color and true whites.

Here's a chart that simply describes the White Balance settings on your camera:

Let's get some examples going so you can see the difference. These two images below do all the talking. The one on the left? YUCK! The photo is a little dark to begin with, but the color cast from my auto white balance setting? It's terrible. The image on the right I shot using my custom white balance setting. My camera has the Kelvin scale, which I love and use about 90% of the time I shoot.

This example is what mommatography is all about - encouraging you to take your camera off auto and see how much better your images can get (even if you start by using different white balance settings). 

The next two images were both shot outside in the snow. The first image was shot on Auto Mode, including Auto White Balance. The bottom image I shot on Manual Mode, with my Custom White Balance setting. Look how vibrant the colors are and how much more life the second image has than the first! 

First image - Auto White Balance. Second image - Custom White Balance setting.

First image - Auto White Balance. Second image - Custom White Balance setting.

Refer to your camera manual for instructions on how to shoot using a custom white balance. Some of these methods include carrying around a gray card and shooting a photo of the gray card in the lighting scenario you are in. If you don't feel like trying to figure out how to use the custom setting, at least play around with the other preset white balance modes based on the chart I made above - if your image is too warm, use a cooler setting and vice versa. Your camera won't give you correct results in these modes every time, but they can be a step in the right direction.

If you want to start somewhere simple, try shooting with your Tungsten White Balance setting when you're inside with little or no natural light, and the warmth of the artificial light needs to be toned down. It is much easier to get your White Balance correct IN camera, while shooting, than try to fix it in any editing software after. Try and get it right in camera. 

Remember that it takes a little practice to get used to but the results are WELL worth it! Good luck!

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