Assignment 4: White Balance

White balance is basically a way to measure the temperature of light and to balance out the colours of your photography for the desired results.

Basically it is the light colour temperature. A low colour temperature shifts light toward the red; a high colour temperature shifts light toward the blue. Different light sources emit light at different colour temperatures, and thus the colour cast. With digital cameras, we can simply tell the image sensor to apply a colour shift.


White balance (WB) is the process of removing unrealistic colour casts, so that objects which appear white in person are rendered white in your photo. Proper camera white balance has to take into account the “colour temperature” of a light source, which refers to the relative warmth or coolness of white light.  Our eyes are very good at judging what is white under different light sources, however digital cameras often have great difficulty with auto white balance (AWB).
An incorrect WB can create unsightly blue, orange, or even green colour casts, which are unrealistic and particularly damaging to portraits.  Performing WB in traditional film photography requires attaching a different cast-removing filter for each lighting condition, whereas with digital this is no longer required.  Understanding digital white balance can help you avoid colour casts created by your camera’s AWB, thereby improving your photos under a wider range of lighting conditions. Hoy A (2005)

Color Temperature	Light Source
1000-2000 K	Candlelight
2500-3500 K	Tungsten Bulb (household variety)
3000-4000 K	Sunrise/Sunset (clear sky)
4000-5000 K	Fluorescent Lamps
5000-5500 K	Electronic Flash
5000-6500 K	Daylight with Clear Sky (sun overhead)
6500-8000 K	Moderately Overcast Sky
9000-10000 K	Shade or Heavily Overcast Sky

These are the two images I have tried to take using different white balances. The first image was taken on shade and the other on fluorescent and hence the first image came out slightly darker than the second image. I personally prefer fluorescent or auto white balance to shade as they produce better quality images.