Photography News 09

Technique PHOTO SCHOOL

Camera class

Everyone has to start somewhere, even top pros, and in our regular Photo School feature we’re taking a close look at core techniques that every beginner needs to know. This month, in Camera class we look at how to take control of white-balance in-camera, while in Software skills we see how to selectively adjust white-balance in post-processing

They simply allow one-touch adjustment of the colour temperature setting to a value that’s most likely to suit the corresponding lighting conditions. If AWB is struggling, one of these presets might do a better job, and they can usually also be fine-tuned to get them spot on. n Howdo I use customwhite-balance? Sometimes getting the best results means telling the camera exactly what to do when it comes to white- balance, and there are usually two ways of doing this. The first is to use the Kelvin or Colour Temperature mode, which lets you dial in an exact colour temperature value. This is particularly useful when using lights or filters that have colour temperatures specified by the manufacturers. The second is by using the Custom white-balance mode. This allows you to set the white-balance by telling the camera how a neutral subject appears under given lighting conditions. To set it up, you usually press the shutter while the frame is filled with the neutral subject, and the camera calculates the colour temperature of the light. For the neutral subject, you can use something as simple as a white piece of paper, but for maximum accuracy, you can buy specially made grey cards. This tailors the white- balance setting exactly to the lighting conditions for very accurate results.

Words by Ian Fyfe

Usingwhite-balancepresets

Last time we looked at what white-balance is and the effect it has on your images. For perfect images, you need to get this right, and there are various ways to take control and make sure this happens – the one you choose may depend on personal preference, and the specific situation. n CanIjustleavemycamerainautowhite-balance? Auto white-balance (AWB) certainly makes things simple, and with most modern cameras, it does a good job, especially when using natural light. But AWB isn’t foolproof and can get confused, particularly with artificial light or when light sources are mixed. If shooting Raw, you can adjust it after the event, as we saw last time. With mixed light sources, this might be necessary anyway to balance different areas, and you can see how to deal with this in Software skills below. But you can get white-balance more accurate in-camera by using presets or custom settings. n What are presets and howdo I use them? Your camera’s white-balance menu includes preset options designed to suit specific lighting situations. Typically, these include Tungsten/Incandescent, Fluorescent, Daylight, Overcast, Shade and Flash. Software skills Part 9: Make mixed lighting consistent ADOBE LIGHTROOM Mixed lighting situations can be troublesome but editing software like Adobe Lightroom 5 can help you out of a hole. Take this image of Stef taken on a recent Photography Workshops training course. There’s daylight coming in from the left as we look and to the right there is tungsten lighting that’s dominating the scene. Using Lightroom’s editing features, we can create a more uniform lighting effect across the scene. I worked on a different section of the image in each step and it still only took three steps and a few minutes work to straighten things out. Words by Will Cheung

One scene, five different white-balance approaches (from left to right): Auto, Custom, Fluorescent, Shade and Tungsten.

NEXTMONTH: Rawor JPEG?What are the pro and cons of both file types, andwhat should you use?We have the answers next issue

STEP 1 Under the Basics menu I chose the Radial Filter (shortcut keys M + Shift) and drew the filter over Stef in the bottom left corner. Unticking Invert Mask makes the image outside the mask active and by moving the filter’s Temp slider to the left, the orange cast can be neutralised. I went all the way to -100. STEP 2 There is a little orange cast to the left of the model caused by Step 1. Using the Radial tool again, I clicked New and drew a small ellipse to cover the area I wanted to alter and this time Invert Mask is left ticked so the area inside the mask is altered. The filter’s Temp slider was moved to -58 to take out the orange cast. STEP 3 The image is nowmore neutral but the door jamb has a cool cast. A Graduated filter can resolve this, again using the filter’s Temp slider (moved to 56) to neutralise the coolness. The result is a more balanced image compared with the starting file.

BEFORE Shot with AWB in mixed lighting.

AFTER Uniform lighting across the scene.

Photography News | Issue 9