What is Auto White Balance, and When Should You Use It?
- Understanding White Balance
- Types of White Balance
- Pros and Cons of Auto White Balance
- Tips for Using Auto White Balance Effectively
- Custom White Balance
- Advanced White Balance Techniques
- Recommended Photography Gear
- Tungsten: Photographers shooting indoors with tungsten light bulbs
- Fluorescent: Photographers shooting indoors with fluorescent light bulbs
- Flash: Photographers shooting flash photography
- Cloudy: Photographers shooting in overcast, cloudy weather conditions
- Shade: Photographers shooting in the shade or indoors (no artificial light)
- Daylight: Photographers shooting in bright, sunny conditions (most common)
- Most of the time, it’s accurate.
- It’s easy to use—ideal for enthusiasts and beginner photographers.
- It’s fast and convenient! You don’t have to constantly make adjustments when working in changing lighting conditions.
- If it’s not perfect, you can still make post-production micro-adjustments, especially if you shoot RAW photos.
- At times, it delivers inconsistent results.
- It can create undesired moods and atmospheres.
- Use color-correcting tools in post-production software (Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop, etc.) as described in the video above by Cristi Kerekes.
- Incorporating white balance bracketing into your photography workflow to ensure you capture the perfect color temperature in difficult environments.
Photo by Dave Hoeek via Shutterstock
When new photographers are getting started, the first things they learn are typically photography composition, the exposure triangle (shutter speed, aperture, ISO), and focus. One thing they often forget about, though, is white balance…Don’t be one of those people!
Whether you identify with that group or have loads of photography experience and simply want a refresher on white balance, this article is for you. We’ll start by defining white balance and discussing why it’s important. Next, we’ll review the different types of white balance, why auto white balance is a useful tool and tips for auto white balance.
Additionally, we’ll talk about custom white balance and a few advanced white balance techniques. Now, let’s dive in and discover everything there is to know about auto white balance!
Check out the video above by Adorama to better understand photography white balance and why it’s important.
Table of Contents
Understanding White Balance
Photo by Radu Bercan via Shutterstock
Let’s start by defining white balance. It’s a crucial camera setting that allows you to adjust the color temperature of your photos depending on lighting conditions. The ultimate goal of white balance is to make photos look as realistic and natural as possible (without editing them in post-production software).
Why is it important to use white balance when taking photos? Because different times of day and lighting situations can greatly affect your results. For example, photos shot in the early morning may appear more blue, while photos shot in the late afternoon tend to have a more golden tint. You can compensate for this using your camera's white balance settings.
At the end of the day, by experimenting with and understanding white balance, you can gain more control over your images and capture more natural-looking photos.
Types of White Balance
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Most modern cameras today will have seven pre-installed white balance modes: tungsten, fluorescent, flash, cloudy, shade, daylight, and auto white balance (AWB). These types of white balance will cover 90% of the shooting situations you’ll encounter. However, if you shuffle through all the presets and still aren’t satisfied with the look of your image, you’ll have to use the custom white balance mode (more on that later).
Generally, we recommend sticking with auto white balance. Newer cameras, in particular, do a fantastic job of recognizing the color temperature of your scene and selecting the mode that will yield the best results. With that said, it’s not perfect, and if you find the colors looking a bit off, here’s a quick guide to help you choose the appropriate white balance.
Pros and Cons of Auto White Balance
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As previously mentioned, we typically start with our cameras set to auto white balance, but it’s not perfect. In this section, we’ll examine the advantages and disadvantages of using auto white balance.
Pros of Auto White Balance
Cons of Auto White Balance
Tips for Using Auto White Balance Effectively
Photo by Sitthiporn Kongtee via Shutterstock
Our top tip for effectively using auto white balance is constantly checking your photos as you shoot. The last thing you want is to spend a whole day shooting only to be completely surprised by the results when you look at the photos later on the computer. You don’t have to check every photo immediately, but occasionally glancing at them is important.
Another tip for auto white balance is to pay close attention to other camera settings. For instance, AWB will be less accurate if your exposure settings aren’t dialed in. Underexposed photos might look colder, and overexposed images might be too bright and washed out.
Custom White Balance
Photo by In Green via Shutterstock
While most photographers never use custom white balance, it’s good to know how to use it if you have to. Moreover, if you ever decide to pursue a photography career, you will often find yourself using custom white balance. One thing to note is that setting custom white balance might vary slightly from brand to brand (Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fujifilm, etc.).
The most basic way to set a custom white balance is to use a gray card. To do this, navigate to “custom white balance” within your camera menu and snap a photo of the gray card in your current lighting conditions. All of the following images you take will use the same white balance. Make sure you reset the white balance whenever lighting conditions change!
Advanced White Balance Techniques
More experienced photographers might want to play around with other advanced white balance techniques in addition to custom and auto white balance. If you’re one of those people, check out the ideas below.
In the end, you may never want or need to use these techniques, but being familiar with them just in case never hurts!
Recommended Photography Gear
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