White Balance in Photography

White balance in Photography - is a crucial aspect in the world of photography and the effect on the final image. The camera is actually not really recognize colors. Displayed by the camera is how different frequencies of light reflected from an object to a different frequency of light that becomes the standard of comparison. An understanding of the process of color reproduction is very important in photography that require a high level of color accuracy, for example in product photos, fabric color, light graphics, etc..

Auto White Balance

Color 'white' was chosen as the standard comparator because it is a neutral color. In the full-frequency lighting conditions, the white color will reflect all light frequencies, so the white object is an object that reflects light with the highest intensity. But because it is a neutral, white would be red when illuminated by a red light, it looks blue in the light blue, and so on. Under these conditions, the Auto White Balance on the camera set up to recognize 'the reflection of the object with the highest intensity' and use it as a standard color 'white' to do color correction.

As a result, in certain conditions, the camera can reproduce wrong colors because there is no white object on the object captured. In this condition the required precision of the photographer to help the camera do color correction, but not in sunset/sunrise photography for example.

(Photo source: www.hootphotography.com)

White Balance Setting

Each camera has a different way of setting, so you should refer to the manual if it has not so far found a way. If you are still confused, use the auto white balance mode. The camera may not always be right, but at least more true.

Here are presets that are normally available on any compact cameras:

• Auto - the camera will guess the color temperature based program planted by the camera manufacturer. You can use it in most situations, but not in every situation. So try to explore to the more tricky lights.
• Daylight / Sunny - usually with the symbol of the sun, use while in the sun. Not all cameras have this white balance preset, because it is almost the same as the normal White Balance.
• Cloudy - symbolized by the cloud, use when shooting in cloudy weather. Usually this presets will generally give a touch more 'warm' than Daylight preset.
• Shade - usually a house or a tree symbol, use when shooting indoors (during the day) or you are in the shadows - not direct sunlight. The light is in shadow (shade) is generally cooler (blue) compared to shooting under direct sunlight, so the settings are a little warm.
• Tungsten/Incadescent - symbolized by the icon of the bulb. Because it is suitable for use when you are shooting indoors with tungsten light sources / incadescent like bulb. In general, these presets will cool color photos.
• Fluorescent - symbolized by the iconic neon lights, use when shooting indoors with fluorescent lighting. In general, these presets will warm color photos.
• Flash - symbols flash, if you use the flash (strobe), use this preset. The light generated by a camera flash can be quite 'cool', so this arrangement will warm colors on the photo.
• Custom - This will be discussed in the next post.

A summary of the description you can see above table.

Kelvin White Balance

Kelvin White Balance usually found on professional DSLR cameras. Basically, preset white balance are based on a temperature difference of each color of light. At Kelvin White Balance presets determined from an understanding of physics that objects with a certain temperature will emit light with a certain frequency as well. Solar light emitted by an object with a temperature of 5500K. Fluorescent light has a temperature of 4000K, 3000K incandescent lamp.
 

(Photo source: www.berkelphoto.com)

Error in degrees Kelvin settings will produce the wrong color. The benchmarks are:

• If the images produced bluer mean temperature setting is too low.
• If the images produced yellowish, then setting the temperature too high.