Having a basic understanding of white balance (WB) is extremely important! Relying on auto white balance (AWB) will give you inconsistent results, and using flash all the time is extremely limiting.

In a nutshell, white balance controls your color. Different light sources have different color tints to them that our brain adjusts for when we look at them. Our camera records what is actually there, which can be very different than what we see!

Color temperature (your white balance) is measured on the Kelvin scale. I could get really technical here, but I won’t since it’s not important for photographing babies. All you need to know is that a lower number is redder (warmer) and a higher number is bluer (cooler). The midday sun is rated at 5500 degrees Kelvin… so is your flash. So if you are photographing in full sun at high noon, using the flash white balance should give you the most accurate results.

Photographs taken in the shade will record cooler. Photographs taken indoors using standard lightbulbs will record warmer.

Your camera’s preset white balance settings do their best to address this issue. Using the shade WB will warm up a picture, using the tungsten (lightbulb) WB will cool it down. The problem with using presets is that they do not address every lighting situation. That might not be a problem for you, since it is a still a much better option than using AWB. If you shoot in RAW, you can easily tweak the white balance during the conversion to JPEG.

I am more of a purist, so I want to take my pictures right the first time. I custom white balance almost every shot I take using an Expodisk. You can also use a grey card or a sheet of white paper. Regardless of what camera you are using, the process is this:
 

  • Set your camera mode to something other than “Auto.” I use AV a lot.
  • Set your focus to “manual” - your camera can’t autofocus when there is nothing in the picture. 
  • Fill the entire frame with your Expodisk, grey card or white sheet of paper. Take a picture.
  • Set your custom white balance to that picture. This is done in the menu.
  • Set your WB to “custom white balance.” On a Canon you do this using buttons, on a Nikon you do this in the menu.

The following example shows exactly what custom white balance does. My daughter lost a tooth and I decided to use just one household lamp to take her picture. I could have used tungsten white balance instead, but it would have still been a little too warm since that setting is for 3200K and my lightbulb is way below that. Most household bulbs are more in the area of 2800K.

Eek! It looks like a sepia toning gone bad!

Eek! It looks like a sepia toning gone bad!

Ahh, much better. Color, that is - not expression!

Ahh, much better. The color, that is - not her expression!

By turning off your flash and changing your WB instead, you enable yourself to capture the entire scene, not just your subject. When you use auto on your camera, your flash makes the background in dim places disappear. 

This portrait was taken using window light.

This portrait was taken using window light.

One of my favorite things about WB is that since there is so much variety available, you can actually use it to make your pictures more colorful than they would be using flash. I like to WB to indoor lighting and then use window light (cool) for the background. Since tungsten lighting is very warm, the blue that you get from the window is exaggerated. Flourescent is more green, so the window light shows up purple.

Vienna Sausage!

Vienna Sausage!

Basically, when you set your WB to one color, your camera is trying to compensate by adding the opposite. When you set your WB to a tungsten (yellow) lightbulb, like I did in the first picture, you are telling your camera, “Hey! This is what I think white looks like!” Your camera responds with, “Whoa there! That doesn’t look white to me at all, it looks yellow! I will add the opposite color to make up for it.”

When faced with a situation where you can’t find the color you want, you can fake it using WB. The following example was taken in a city where all of the holiday lights are white except for the occasional blue snowflake. We really had our hearts set on colored lights, so I found a red neon sign and set my WB to it using Expodisk. The camera compensated for the red light by adding green. I had the couple pose by the red neon that I WB’d to until it lit their faces just right. The result is a very colorful image with correct skin tones, green shadows and lots of green lights!! 

It's easy being green!

It's easy being green!

Hopefully this article gave you a better understanding of what white balance is, what is does and how you can use it to take better pictures of your children. If you have any questions, please ask!

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