White Balance & Colour Temperature

Tip: Use the white balance "auto" setting. If you get strange colour tints, try to calibrate the white balance or change to preset settings to suit the colour temperature of the light source.

Colour temperature measures the colour quality of a light source. The concept of colour temperature is based on the radiation emitted by a black-body and is very technical and complicated. To the photographer, the lighting is "warm" if there is a yellowish hue, and "cool" if there is a bluish hue.

Digital photography brings a whole new dimension to the area of colour temperature in photography. Previously, in conventional photography, the photographer had to use colour correction filters to correct for the various colour temperatures. There was also the choice of tungsten or daylight-balanced film. For digital photographers, things are less complicated as colour temperature correction is usually automatic.

White balance is quite a new term for conventional photographers, although videographers have long been using it. Basically, white balance is what the camera perceives as true white. A white object may be yellowish-white under tungsten lights, slightly greenish-white under fluorescent lights, or slightly bluish-white on a cloudy day. Basically, the camera tries to adjust the colour balance to achieve a tonality of white that is "correct".

In most cases, the white balance is quite satisfactory. If the predominant light source for a scene comes from a tungsten light bulb, the image will appear yellowish. Most digital cameras automatically correct for it, and produce an image without the yellow hue. Certain top-end models allow you to calibrate the white balance by selecting an area in the scene that is white. This option gives you the highest accuracy.

On the other hand, there are times when we do want to retain the yellow hue to give an image more life. Play around with the various white balance settings to attain the most pleasing colour balance.