How to master the white balance to make the influence more exciting

Lead: If the exposure compensation function learned before is to take pictures with the brightness seen by eyes, then the white balance function to be learned today is to take pictures with the same color vision seen by eyes. I believe everyone has had the experience of shooting a white target yellow under a street lamp or in a cafe. This function, which allows us to change the white object that has been photographed yellow back to the original white, is called white balance.

How to master the white balance to make the influence more exciting? What is the color temperature?

Before learning the white balance function, we must first understand what color temperature is. As long as all the light sources that can reflect light have their own color temperature, including the sun, although it is easy to regard all the light sources as white, the sun will actually change the color of the light it emits over time, and each light source also has its own hue. In this way, under the light sources of various hues, you will take red and blue photos with the same benchmark. Therefore, with the different colors and types of light sources, it is necessary to make appropriate settings to take photos with correct brightness. This color temperature will change with different light sources, and the function of changing reference is called white balance function.

The sun is red at sunrise and sunset.

The sun is white during the day.

The sun is yellow in the morning and evening.

Color temperature comparison table

The color temperature is generally expressed in Kelvin (K), based on the color temperature of 5000~5500K when the light source is white. When the color temperature is lower than this benchmark, the photo will turn red; When the color temperature is higher, bluer photos will be taken. Therefore, according to the different light sources, most cameras support the manual white balance function, so that users can set a more correct color temperature.

White balance setting

Using the color temperature of the light source often used in DSLR camera photography can help users set the white balance to shoot in a faster and more effective way. By setting the stored white balance mode, you can take photos with the same color as the actual color. Canon EOS 550D supports seven white balance modes: AWB (automatic), sunshine, shadow, cloudy day, tungsten lamp, fluorescent lamp and flash, and users can shoot at will.

When using the Canon EOS 550D, if you want to select the white balance mode, first press the WB key above the ten buttons on the back of the fuselage, and the white balance mode screen will appear. Select the white balance mode according to the current light source state.

Take pictures in white balance mode.

In order to understand what white balance is, please try to change the white balance mode in your camera to take pictures. You can put your little things on white paper and take pictures while changing the white balance mode.

The next photo was taken outdoors on a cloudy day. Confirm the photos taken through the screen. Because it is cloudy, the color sense of the image taken in cloudy mode will be the most normal. On the contrary, the shadow mode with a higher color temperature setting than the cloudy mode of 6000K will appear red, and the tungsten lamp mode with a lower color temperature setting will appear blue.

Zazie Hoko

Flash memory (about 6000K)

In the same way as above, change the state of light source to shoot, and change the white balance mode under fluorescent light to shoot the same object. Under fluorescent lamp, the image taken in fluorescent lamp mode will appear as white as our eyes, while the tungsten lamp mode with color temperature below 4000K in fluorescent lamp mode will get blue image, and it will appear red in shadow mode.

Use shadow mode under fluorescent lamp, use fluorescent lamp mode under fluorescent lamp, and use tungsten lamp mode under fluorescent lamp.

Tungsten lamp mode is used under incandescent lighting, daylight mode is used under incandescent lighting, and shadow mode is used under incandescent lighting.

This time, under incandescent lighting, change the white balance mode to shoot the same object. When taking photos under incandescent lighting, the images taken in tungsten lamp mode are as white as those seen by the eyes. On the contrary, sunlight mode and shadow mode with color temperature higher than 3200K of tungsten lamp mode will appear red, but in shadow mode with color temperature higher than sunlight mode, a redder color will be taken.

Adjust the color sense of photos according to your own preferences.

If you take pictures under an incandescent lamp, it will turn yellow. It is easy for ordinary people to think that the sky will appear blue whenever they shoot, but as long as they know the white balance, they can shoot the blue, yellow and purple sky under the illumination of incandescent lamps. Abandoning fixed ideas should be the first step to take a good photo, right? The white balance function is to find the original color sense of the target under various lighting conditions. When shooting, you will automatically set the white balance, and you will take photos with yellow color vision. Because the color temperature of incandescent lamps was lower than that set in the camera at that time, there would be so much yellow in the photos.

Shoot in automatic mode under incandescent light.

Therefore, if the white balance mode is set to the tungsten lamp mode, or the color temperature of the camera is set to the same color temperature as the incandescent lamp, the yellow feeling of the photo will disappear.

Tungsten lamp mode is used for shooting under incandescent lighting.

What if the camera color temperature setting is lower than incandescent lighting? For example, the color temperature is set to candlelight mode, and a custom white balance is used for shooting. Because the color temperature of the camera is lower than that of the incandescent lamp now, even under the irradiation of the incandescent lamp, a photo full of blue will be taken.

In incandescent lighting, shooting is done in a user-defined white balance mode.

Generally speaking, the color temperature of sunlight in the daytime is about 5200 ~ 5000 K. If the white balance mode is set to sunlight, we can take photos with the same color sense as our eyes.

F7. 1,1125 seconds, ISO 200,-1EV, outdoor shooting in daylight mode.

However, if the white balance is set to a color temperature higher than that of sunlight in daytime, for example, if the color temperature is set to the highest 10000K, the color temperature of the current light source will become lower than that of the camera, and a yellow photo will be taken.

Set the white balance with blue paper outdoors during the day.

Set a low color temperature outdoors during the day and customize the white balance mode to shoot.

On the contrary, when the white balance is set to be lower than the color temperature of sunlight, the colors of the sky reflected in the sky and water will become bluer and more purple due to the lower color temperature set in the camera. Different values are set according to the white balance color temperature like this, and the color sense and feeling of photos will be different.