What is White Balance and How to choose the right one?

Hi there! Last post was pretty geeky by all means! But its hard to explain ISO and DOF in simple terms! I hope it helped! Today, lets see what White Balance (WB) is and how it can be used for normal usage as well as creatively to get the right mood and colors.

White Balance: As far as my knowledge goes, White Balance setting is the hue shift that is needed to make the color 'White' appear White! Simple. The light and its color has a major influence on everything it falls on. As a small physics refresher, we know that any object that absorbs all light is black. Any object that keeps certain colored light rays and reflects the rest will keep the color of the reflected light. Hence, if an object is pure red, its because it absorbs all colors of light and only reflects red rays of light. (By rays i mean the red part of the spectrum of visible light).
OK that was to only make you realize again that photography is majorly concerned with light.

Lets start by taking an example of a white wall in a room that is lit by a light bulb and hence the whole room looks orange-ish/yellow. Now, if you want the wall to look white and not orange, you have to change the White Balance setting in your camera. This setting is usually available on most new cameras irrespective of its class (i.e., DSLR or P&S or even Camera Phone). If you are aware of the available options, you will have to set the WB to Tungsten (named after the filament that glows in a light bulb). Now, your shot will look more natural and neutral. It will make the white wall look naturally white. Thats basically what White balance does. The usual settings for WB are Auto (the camera decides the WB depending on the hues of the light), Direct Sunlight, Flash, Cloudy, Tungsten, Shade and Flourescent. All these have their own purpose and effect. To understand the effect, first, one must know what it means when someone says "the color is warm" or when "its a cooler color". Its simple. The color Red and its shades are called Warm colors. The color Blue and its shades are called Cool colors.

Creatively, the WB setting can also be used to change the way a scene looks. For example, look at the following picture.


These are two separate shots, each having its own mood. They were shot back to back. The image on the left was shot with Cloudy WB and the one on the right was shot with Tungsten WB. Tungsten WB adds blue to the picture thinking that you are in an area which is lit by tungsten bulbs and hence you want to neutralise the image by adding blue to the red shades. The other picture looks warm. Its because the Cloudy WB adds a nice warm tone to the image thinking that you are in a cloudy, gray area and the picture needs some warmth. Clearly, i have used it to the get the effect i want and i prefer the one with the Tungsten WB. I love the contrasting reds and blues. The blues are missing in the the other image. There is only some slight violet tint at the horizon. Anyway, basically what you can achieve with different WB settings is really nice and creative. Once you understand what WB setting does what, its easy to get what you want.

Some pointers:
When shooting normal situations, Auto WB works for me and it does a good job.
When shooting pictures of people in a restaurant that has a lot of light bulbs, use Tungsten.
When shooting sunsets, if you want it to appear very warm, then choose between Cloudy WB or Shade. For a milder warm tone, use Direct Sunlight.
For outdoor shots after sunset or before sunrise, try the Tungsten WB to get much bluer skies.
Keep experimenting. Setting the right WB will take your picture from mediocre to Great!

Happy Weekend!