What are color temperature and white balance? Novice photography course

Let's talk about color temperature and white balance first.

Friends will definitely encounter a situation when shooting: the color of the subject is not in line with the real thing, it is yellow or blue, which is the influence of color temperature and white balance ~

So what is the color temperature? What is white balance?

1. What is the color temperature?

Color temperature is a unit of measurement, indicating the color components contained in light. The unit of measurement is Kelvin, expressed in K, such as 1000K, 3300K, etc.

Variation of color temperature k value;

The smaller the k value, the lower the color temperature and the yellowish hue. The warmer and quieter the atmosphere, the higher the K value, the higher the color temperature, the bluer the tone, and the chilly and sad atmosphere.

Let's explain the color temperature in detail with an example of striking the iron.

The physical definition of color temperature is:

When a blackbody is heated to a certain temperature, and the color of the light it emits is the same as that of the light source, the temperature at which the blackbody is heated is called the color temperature of the light source.

You can think of this "black body" as an iron block, so when the iron block is heated, from red to yellow to blue, the different colors produced by different temperatures are the color temperature.

Second, what is white balance?

The English name of white balance is white balance, and its basic concept is that "white objects can be restored to white under any light source", and the color cast when shooting under a specific light source can be compensated by corresponding complementary colors.

White balance is represented by AWB on the camera.

Variation law of white balance k value;

The smaller the k value, the bluer the tone, and the larger the k value, the yellower the tone.

Third, the relationship between white balance and color temperature

Conceptually:

Color temperature and white balance are completely different concepts. White balance is an extension of the photographer's expression of light problems in photography. However, because the white balance adjustment process is realized by adjusting the color temperature, the color temperature is a white balance problem relative to the camera.

On the law of change;

The change law of color temperature and balance is completely opposite. The greater the color temperature, the colder the photo (blue), and the smaller the white balance, the colder the photo.

Fourth, how to set the white balance

When we want to take a warm color (yellow) photo, improve the white balance K value. When we want to take a cold (blue) photo, reduce the white balance K value.

Extension: If the overall feeling of the photo we take is blue, we want it to be normal or yellow, and we can raise the white balance K value, and vice versa.