White Balance

White Balance

In digital cameras, can be found the term White Balance (WB), which means the ability of the camera reads color temperature in units of degrees Kelvin (K). Color temperature is a way to measure the quality of light. Light with high color temperature (Kelvin value is high) have more blue light than with a low color temperature (Kelvin value is low).

Here is a table showing some light sources with their color temperature.

Color Temperature Light Source
1000-2000 K Candlelight
2500-3500 K Tungsten Bulb (household variety)
3000-4000 K Sunrise/Sunset (clear sky)
4000-5000 K Fluorescent Lamps
5000-5500 K Electronic Flash
5000-6500 K Daylight with Clear Sky (sun overhead)
6500-8000 K Moderately Overcast Sky
9000-10000 K Shade or Heavily Overcast Sky

1. Auto White Balance

In this automatic setting, the camera white balance setting will find the most natural, just like the original.

2. Daylight

This setting will normalize the image that is on excessive light, such as in outdoor conditions during a sunny day.

3. Shade

This setting is used in dark conditions because of the shadow.

4. Cloudy

Used to add and strengthen the brownish yellow color. White Balance was selected on the image of evening sunset or in the morning when the sun is dawning, the color can be much more artistic.

5. Tungsten Light

Used to normalize the images under the tungsten light (incandescent light, yellow light bulb, the bulb). If used in normal condition, the effect produced a bluish image.

6. White Fluorescent Light

This setting is used to normalize the image under white fluorescent light.

7. Flash

This setting is used to normalize the image taken using a flash or Speedlite.

8. Custom

This setting allows the photographer to select the white balance as desired by further settings.

 

Some examples of images that use different white balances:

 

outdoor

indoor

indoor