Photography News Issue 60

Photography News | Issue 60 | photographynews.co.uk

Technique 47

Camera School Here we lift the lid on all things camera related, showing how to get better results from your CSC or DSLR, and providing all the info you don’t find in the manual. So, stick with us and you’ll soon be wielding your camera like a pro. This month, we begin to explore the white-balance setting...

Words & pictures by Kingsley Singleton

Digital camerasmake control of colour far easier than in the days of film. Where once coloured filters or specialist films were required when moving fromone typeof lighting toanother, now all youneed to do is turn a dial. And if you forget to do that, so long as you’ve shot in Raw mode, you can edit the colours long after shooting. But as we all know, the mark of a good photographer is getting shots as close to perfection as possible at the time of shooting – and applying changes in editing can not only cost you time, but image quality, too. Therefore a good understanding of your camera’s white- balance and colour settings is important. Here’s how theywork. WHAT ISWHITE-BALANCE? The camera’s white-balance setting controls how it responds to different temperatures of light. All different types of light source have their own colour temperature, so for example the light from a desk lamp has a lower colour temperature than light from the sun. These temperatures are measured in degrees Kelvin (K). When we move from one type of lighting to another our eyes naturally adjust, and a camera needs to do that as well, so that the colours it records look natural. If no adjustment to the white-balance setting is made colours may look overlywarmor cool, or have a strong colour cast. Like other exposure settings you can either set the white-balance to work automatically, or set it to work manually. Most of the time, if the white-balance is set to auto it will take a good reading of the scene, andminor adjustments can be made in editing to perfect the colours. But in some situations, even modern systems can get confused. Usually this happens when shooting when there’s lots of artificial light mixing with natural light, such as in a low-light city scene. There may also be times when you’ll want to change the colours in the scene creatively, like when shooting the warmth of a sunset, or a frosty landscape. In these cases you will need to set thewhite-balancemanually. Another advantageofsettingthewhite-balancemanually is that colours will be completely consistent between shots – assuming the conditions don’t change. WHITE-BALANCE IN AUTO OR MANUAL?

Left Here, although the auto white-balance setting gave a reading of 5100K, it was too warm for the scene; manually changing the white-balance to 4000K gives a cooler look, which suits the scene. Above The white- balance setting is accessed by a dedicated button on the camera body, or fromwithin the shooting menu on screen.

presets, usually from white-balance readings you’ve takenmanually.

TAKING AMANUALWHITE-BALANCE READING This route ismore complicated, butwill give you the most accurate results. The method varies from camera to camera, but essentially you shoot apictureof amidtonegreysubject orwhite subject and base the white-balance reading on that. This can be done with accessories, like white-balance cards, or using a piece of grey or white paper. You can also meter off parts of the scene, such as a patch of snow or a white wall. We’ll go into more detail on this in next month’s Camera School. EDITINGWHITE-BALANCE IN CAMERA Another option, offered onmany cameras when shootingRawfiles, is to shoot and then fine-tune the colours within the camera’s post-processing options. Due to the way that a Raw file is captured, and the massive amount of data it contains, you can find the white-balance option in the editing menu and change it to any of the preset options, or to a manual Kelvin setting, then save it as a JPEG or as a newRaw file. NEXTMONTH HOW TO TAKE MANUAL WHITE-BALANCE READINGS AND GET PERFECT COLOURS IN ANY SCENE

SETTING THEWHITE-BALANCE First find the white-balance setting. On most enthusiast cameras white-balance has a dedicated button that will immediately bring up options on the main screen or the top panel display. But on some models you might need to dive into the shootingmenu. Onceyou’reinthewhite-balancesettingsyou’ll find a list of preset options for common lighting conditions.Theseusuallycompriseincandescent (aka tungsten), fluorescent, daylight, flash,

cloudy and shade. You then simply pick the one that’s closest to the conditions you’re in. Or, say you want warmer or cooler colours, pick anoptionaboveorbelowtheambientconditions. Most cameras will also allowyou to fine-tune the auto setting or any of these presets if you find them lacking, for example making the auto a little warmer by default if colours look too cool to you. Another route is to dial in the specific colour temperature you want to use in degrees Kelvin. On some cameras you can also save

Tungsten

Autowhite-balance

Daylight

Images This interior mixes tungsten light with bright daylight outside, so conditions are mixed. The tungsten setting is too cold, and the daylight setting too warm, but the camera’s auto white-balance setting (3400K) creates a good mix.