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Auto White Balance

Lesson 9 from: Mastering Your Digital Camera

Chris Weston

Auto White Balance

Lesson 9 from: Mastering Your Digital Camera

Chris Weston

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Lesson Info

9. Auto White Balance

You don't have to adjust the white balance for every photograph. Auto white balance will read the scene and choose the color for you -- determine when (and when not) to use this automated setting.
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Auto White Balance

now you've probably come across auto white balance. When set to auto white balance, the camera assesses the color temperature of the light in the senor photographing and sets an exact white balance value to neutralize any color caste. On the whole, it's slightly more accurate than the standard presets. However, it's sole purpose is to create images with neutral color characteristics. So it's not the best setting if you want to add or enhance color casts now. That said, I almost always have my cameras set to auto white balance, and that's because I shooting raw and white man. It is one of the settings you can change in computer as if you had changed it in the camera. The advantage is I have much finer control over setting the perfect white balance value in the computer than I do in the camera. However, if you're shooting in J peg mode because the camera is processing, the image is important to get to grips with white balance, especially how it effects the look and feel of your images an...

d practice. Setting it in camera because it's really difficult to fix errors later, the best way to get to grips with white balance and to learn how to use it both technically and artistically, is to go out and do some test shots. So for this series of tests, what I've done is I've set the camera up on a tripod. What I'm going to do now is I'm going to take a series of images that each of the different preset white balance settings I'm going to start first with the sunlight, the daylight setting because that's the one that gives us our line in the sand, the one that basically shows us a picture as we see it with the naked eye. So that's my line in the sand picture. And now what I'm going to do is simply take a series of images of each of those different preset white balance settings. I'm going to start with cloudy, which will warm the picture up just that little bit, and then I'm going to shift it into the next one, up with his shade, and we'll see with this picture again. There's just that little bit of extra warm from the photograph. We've just taken out some of the blues and we've added more red. We're going to do now is going to go in the opposite direction. I'm going to go towards the blue tones. I'm gonna move it around this time into initially into the fluorescent setting. And if we compare that to the initial daylight setting, we'll see that there's a much cooler tone to the picture finally, down into the tungsten setting. And again, if we compare this image, we'll see that there's an even blue atone. So simply by just testing those different white balance settings, those different presets on looking at them either on the screen or later. When you get back home on the computer, you can see how white balance is changing the color tone of the pictures that you're taking. And, of course, remember that the time to practice is not when you have the perfect image in the competition winning shot. What kind of practices when the weather is like this is blowing a gale is pouring with rain, and frankly, I would much rather be at home inside in front of the fire

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Ratings and Reviews

mark jacobson
 

What a marvelous course! What a marvelous teacher! When I went to college, my father would always ask me about my professors, more than the courses themselves. He was passionate about learning and although too busy with earning an income to go beyond an undergrad degree, continued to read 50 books a year. I still remember how he'd get almost visibly excited when I'd tell him about some special professor who taught with such enthusiasm and, more than just passion, evident delight and joy in the subject. 'Ah they're the best, son. How wonderful you have such a teacher." Well, he passed away decades ago but if he were still around I'd get a kick out of telling him about Chris Weston, the 'Prof' of this course. He's one of the very special ones: a teacher who's loved and lived his vocation--his avocation--since he was a boy--and still is as excited about it now as he was then. The result: a course that seems to be more a labor of love--of pouring far more energy and thought into the details then one typically finds in these courses--than anything else. Bravo Chris! I'm already on to your next one.

user-6402bf
 

Chris is an amazing instructor who dissects theory giving amazing analogies that bring concepts to life. I have rarely been able to sit through most video course for more than a half-hour but watched this one from beginning to end. A good refresher course if you've been away from the camera for awhile or there are some concepts that still illude you. I highly recommend this course and look forward to watching his others. Thank you for the clarity and great explanations.

Sky Bergman
 

This was an amazing class. I have looked at a number of basic photography classes. This one was by far the best I have seen. Chris is an exceptional teacher. He breaks things down into digestible information and then inspires you to be creative. Thank you!

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