Basic theoretical knowledge of photography: setting white balance

The English name of White Balance is white balance, abbreviated as WB. People's eyes can correctly identify colors because people's brains can detect and correct color changes caused by environmental factors. The photosensitive element inside the digital camera can also detect the color temperature of light and adjust it inside the camera. Its purpose is to reproduce the color of the shooting scene correctly, which is the automatic white balance mode of the camera.

Set white balance

Although automatic white balance can adapt to a variety of lighting conditions, there will still be color cast problems under some special lighting conditions. In order to correct this color shift, the monocular camera provides a variety of white balance settings for users to choose from. In this way, photos can better present natural colors, or photographers can emphasize a certain color in the image according to their own creativity. Taking Canon EOS 5D Markⅲ Ⅲ as an example, it provides a variety of white balance settings, including automatic white balance, daylight mode, cloudy mode, shadow mode, tungsten lamp mode, incandescent lamp mode, flash mode, user-defined mode and color temperature mode.

operational approach

1. Press the white balance button on the fuselage.

2. Turn the speed control dial to directly adjust the white balance, and you can check the current white balance setting on the LCD screen at the top of the machine.

Expert tips

Use the speed control button to set the white balance. Press the speed control button, select the white balance setting, and turn the main dial or the speed control dial to adjust the white balance.

Different Application Effects of White Balance Settings

The following is a list of the effects of taking photos with different white balance settings on CANOEOS 5DMark, and the differences can be clearly seen by comparison.

▲ Automatic white balance.

▲ daylight white balance. Photography course

▲ Shadow white balance.

▲ tungsten lamp white balance.

▲ White balance of white fluorescent lamp.

▲ Flash white balance.

Use white balance to correct color shift.

Usually, we adjust the white balance to avoid the color cast caused by the influence of light and restore more real and accurate colors. For example, photos taken in the light environment of incandescent lamps will turn yellow and red. You can restore color by setting the white balance to incandescent mode. It should be noted that the incandescent lamp itself has many colors, and the color temperature of different colors is high or low, so it is not always possible to accurately restore the true color of the subject when using the incandescent lamp mode. At this time, it is necessary to use manual preset balance or choose color temperature adjustment.

▲ Automatic white balance.

▲ White balance of incandescent lamp.

Adjust the white balance to show the photographer's creativity.

Is the original color restored, and the picture effect must be good? In fact, the role of white balance is not only to restore the true color, but also to let photographers deliberately use "color cast" to express their shooting creativity. For example, when shooting at dusk, it is often necessary to strengthen the warm golden light, which can be easily achieved by using white balance adjustment.

▲ With automatic white balance shooting, the shadow of the swan appears faint blue.

▲ Aperture priority, F5.6, 1/320s, ISO 400, focal length 100mm, exposure compensation-0.67 ev. Adjusting the white balance to the color temperature selection mode and setting the color temperature to 8800K will obviously enhance the warm color, make the water surface and swans appear rich golden yellow, and better express the evening atmosphere.

Expert tips

Use RAW grid file to freely adjust white balance; Save photos with RAW files; Then use DPP, Photoshop and other post-processing software to adjust the white balance freely; You can concentrate on observation, composition and shooting at the shooting scene.