What is white balance?

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Narusato wrote:

> This is a newbie's question.
> What is white balance and why WB important for digicam?

White balance makes sure white subjects in the scene are white..

It should be obvious why this is important.


> I have never heard about white balance with analog cameras.

That's because it wasn't called white balance, but that was the
general idea for using different colored filters and special
films on film cameras.


More info at:

http://www.photoxels.com/tutorial_white-balance.html

http://www.earthboundlight.com/phototips/zen-of-white-b...

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

with analog cameras you would use daylight film in daylight conditions,
tungsten film indoors, and filters for fluorescents and other sources.

white balance does the adjusting from different sources to 'neutral'.

just set it on auto and forget about it


"Narusato" <Narusato@thuntek.net> wrote in message
news f7gkt$mdi$1@reader2.nmix.net...
> This is a newbie's question.
> What is white balance and why WB important for digicam?
> I have never heard about white balance with analog cameras.
>
> Narusato
>

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

In article <df7gkt$mdi$1@reader2.nmix.net>,
Narusato <Narusato@thuntek.net> wrote:
>This is a newbie's question.
>What is white balance and why WB important for digicam?

White balance is a feature allowing you to adjust for the colour of the
light which illuminates a scene. Sunlight is a different colour from the
light from a light bulb, for example. The human eye and brain is good at
adjusting automatically for this, and treating any strong light source as
"white", so you don't tend to notice the effect of different coloured light
so much in your day-to-day activities, but it is there. Setting the white
balance allows your camera to treat the background light as white, and
adjust the other colours accordingly.

Auto white balance tries to determine the colour of the background light
automatically, and generally does a good job. However, it's not always a
good idea to use it - if you're trying to capture a nice sunset, you don't
want the camera taking that nice red light and adjusting everything so that
the colours look like they did at midday.

>I have never heard about white balance with analog cameras.

Different films have their own white balance. Most are balanced for daylight
(like using "daylight" white balance on your digicam), with some being
slightly redder and some being slightly bluer (if you shoot with Provia
100F, for example, a commonly used slide film from Fuji, you'll tend to
notice that neutral shadows are actually a bit blue). You can also get films
which are balanced for shooting under artificial light. If you use these in
ordinary daylight, everything comes out blue (since artificial light is
quite yellow, these films boost the blue), as it does if you set your
digicam to "tungsten" white balance and shoot outside.

If you want to emulate previous experience with consumer film, leave your
digicam on the "daylight" setting all the time.

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

"Narusato" <Narusato@thuntek.net> wrote in message
news f7gkt$mdi$1@reader2.nmix.net...
> This is a newbie's question.
> What is white balance and why WB important for digicam?

Ever leave the white balance on 'flourescent' or any of the artificial light
settings and taken a picture outdoors?

> I have never heard about white balance with analog cameras.
>

Sure you have. Ever taken a picture indoors with daylight balanced film
where the only lighting is artificial? Incandescent lamps will have a very
orange, warmish color cast. Flourescent lamps leave a greenish cast. There
are color correction filters to correct for this.

Mark

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Yikes! Bad advise! Well...not all bad. As a newbie who didn't even know what
WB was its not so bad to set it and forget it. But, you will find that there
are situations where the auto setting fails. That is when you need to adjust
it. As soon as you get comfortable with your camera and editing software you
might want to start shooting RAW....then you can forget WB as that can be
adjusted in RAW mode. But...even further along on the photo path you might
shoot RAW and still adjust the WB so you get that much closer to where you
want to be without adjustments.

--
Thanks,
Gene Palmiter
(visit my photo gallery at http://palmiter.dotphoto.com)
freebridge design group
www.route611.com & Route 611 Magazine
"frankg" <sorry@stoppingspam.com> wrote in message
news LIRe.8353$884.734791@news20.bellglobal.com...
> with analog cameras you would use daylight film in daylight conditions,
> tungsten film indoors, and filters for fluorescents and other sources.
>
> white balance does the adjusting from different sources to 'neutral'.
>
> just set it on auto and forget about it
>
>
> "Narusato" <Narusato@thuntek.net> wrote in message
> news f7gkt$mdi$1@reader2.nmix.net...
>> This is a newbie's question.
>> What is white balance and why WB important for digicam?
>> I have never heard about white balance with analog cameras.
>>
>> Narusato
>>
>
>

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

In article <df7gkt$mdi$1@reader2.nmix.net>,
"Narusato" <Narusato@thuntek.net> wrote:

> This is a newbie's question.
> What is white balance and why WB important for digicam?
> I have never heard about white balance with analog cameras.

It's the difference between the (usually) pure white of sunlight
compared to the duller yellow of tungsten lighting. Your eyes are only
dimly aware of the difference but it stands out in photos. Digicams can
compensate for the orange cast automatically, plus a lot of other
situations that may affect an image.

In film cameras we had to use a much more limited range of filters or
specially manufactured film to compensate.

Of course there's no reason why you can't retain the tungsten colour
cast if it suits the image.


--
ffotherington-Thomas
(spinster of this parish)

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

"Mark B." <mbohntrash54@comcast.net> wrote>

There
> are color correction filters to correct for this.

I'm a newbie too, using an FZ-5 at the moment and contemplating the
difference between a UV filter and a Skylight (slight pink content). I'm
wondering if the latter will force some sort of correction in WB. Any
concern?

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Fifty Hertz wrote:

>
> "Mark B." <mbohntrash54@comcast.net> wrote>
>
> There
>> are color correction filters to correct for this.
>
> I'm a newbie too, using an FZ-5 at the moment and contemplating the
> difference between a UV filter and a Skylight (slight pink content). I'm
> wondering if the latter will force some sort of correction in WB. Any
> concern?

Be aware that color filters will not perform the same on a digital
camera as they will on a film camera.

White balance is always working and trying to figure out what
the white point is in the scene. Colored filters on digital cameras
generally yield unpredictable results.

With proper use of white balance, there is no need for filters.
If you follow the thread back, you'll see that colored filters
were designed for film cameras that have no white balance.

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

> Narusato writes ...
>
>What is white balance and why WB important for digicam?
>I have never heard about white balance with analog cameras.

Several people explained it well, but this site goes a bit deeper,
discussing how to measure the color temperature with a color meter and
how to adjust for different color shifts with filters when using
daylight slide film ... well worth the effort to read it ...
http://www.photodo.com/art/Take14.shtml ... I have the Gossen color
meter and when shooting in shade at higher elevations (5,000 - 10,000
ft) often get color temp readings over 10,000 Kelvin, which ruins the
yellows on slide films, for example.

With digital it's much simpler if you are shooting RAW mode, you can
adjust the color temp late in the flow ...

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Fifty Hertz wrote:
> "Mark B." <mbohntrash54@comcast.net> wrote>
>
> There
>> are color correction filters to correct for this.
>
> I'm a newbie too, using an FZ-5 at the moment and contemplating the
> difference between a UV filter and a Skylight (slight pink content). I'm
> wondering if the latter will force some sort of correction in WB.
> Any concern?

Why do you want a filter at all? Even a clear piece of glass may degrade
the optics in the camera. If you want to buy something for creative
effects - try a polarising filter.

If you must use a filter, then a slight pink filter will simply cause the
camera to set its white balance slightly differently to correct for the
pinkness of the filter, so there's really nothing to choose.

David