“..Why would anyone want to photograph an indisputably colourful world in monochrome? If colour film had been invented first, would anybody even contemplate photographing in black and white?” - Russell Miller , Magnum: Fifty Years at the Front Line of History by Russell Miller , ISBN: 0802116310 , Page: 4
Color Temperature and White Balance
The color temperature of a light source is measured in degrees Kelvin and it describes its color exactly. The lower the color temperature, the more “warm” red wavelengths are in the light. Higher color temperatures have more “cool” blue wavelengths.
Cool = above 5500˚K (like shade at 6000˚K)
Neutral = 5000-5500˚K (like midday daylight)
Warm = Below 5000˚K (like Tungsten at 3200˚K)
In a digital camera, white balance is a setting that compensates for the differences in color temperature of the surrounding light. The white balance must be adjusted to ensure that all colors in the scene will be represented faithfully. It can be adjusted automatically by the camera or manually, by selecting presets (tungsten, fluorescent, etc.), or by aiming the lens at a totally white surface (the white card) and selecting "lock white balance." Alternatively, a gray card with 18% gray is sometimes used and can be clicked on in post-production (processing a RAW file or using a color adjustment such as Curves in Photoshop) to adjust the white balance to a neutral point.
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| White Balance Presets and Color Temperature Scale |
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| Shot with Manual White Balance Settings. Notice it's the opposite of what you would think - 3000˚K is Cool - It's more like adding a color filter to adjust for the color temperature the camera thinks it is capturing! |
Click here to see a fun example of how a Photoshop version of white balance really changes a scene's mood!
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| RGB Digital Numbers |
