How Do I Set White Balance?

Good question. Ever wonder why your photos turn out way too blue or red? Well, unless you were shining a red flashlight on the scene, it is undoubtedly a problem with the white balance setting. I will not get too much into the nasty details of white balance here, but try to give a quick primer on how I set my white balance. We all have different solutions to problems, and this is my solution.

My solution is specifically tailored to a digital SLR, but even if you use a compact camera (point-and-shoot), you may well come to the same conclusion I did.

There are only a limited number of solutions to the problem:

“Auto” White Balance
Often the camera does not choose the setting very well if we leave it on auto, which is where most of us are shooting, and the reason you are even reading this in the first place. If you shoot in the raw format (instead of JPG), white balance is very simple to change in post processing, but even if you shoot JPG, you will often end up closer to the mark than if you leave it on some preset option like “sunlight” or “flourescent”.

Leaving the camera in the “auto” white balance mode will require some color editing to correct the color, and if you are shooting JPG, that will not be too pleasant…unless you use Google’s free Picasa photo editing program. But that is another topic.

“Preset” or “Custom” White Balance Setting
When you check a photo on camera’s LCD screen and it disappoints you, try using the preset option. I did this for a wedding ceremony, because I knew I was going to fire a lot of shots in the same environment, and my photos turned out wonderful. Check your manual on how to set this. It is not too hard; you just need a white surface. This is the best option, technically, but practically a nightmare if you forget to preset when you change environments!

Choose WB Depending on Environment
You cannot leave it set on “cloudy”, “incandescent”, or any other single situation option. Some photos will be great, but it will totally ruin many of your photos. This is like choosing one speed to drive your car, regardless of where you are driving! So, if you decide to pick the appropriate white balance for the situation (“cloudy” on a cloudy day or “incandescent” in a room with regular ol’ light bulbs), just make sure you remember to change it. Just like the “preset” or “custom” option, if you do not change it, you are much worse off then if you just used “auto”.

Cooper’s “Wholistic” White Balance Solution
Basically, this is what I do. I leave the camera in “auto” by default. Then, I know I can shoot and not think about white balance. So, if I change situations and forget to mess with it, at least the camera is going to get me somewhere close. However, I shoot in raw, so changing WB later is very easy, so the camera’s slightly off white balance from time to time is not an issue.

If I do decide to think about it, I will often use one of the specific options. And if I have time to play with it a little, I will take a few test shots and adjust the white balance compensation a little more “hot” or “cold” (e.g. “sunlight”+2 or “incandescent”-1), which my camera has, but not all cameras do.

And if I know I will be shooting in a consistent environment (like the wedding I mentioned above), I will preset to get spot-on, brilliant photos! Of course, when I did that at the wedding, I ruined a few when I walked outside the church sanctuary into the sunlight and forgot to move it back to “auto”!

Conclusion
I almost always leave my camera on the automatic setting. No, I do not like what the camera picks the vast majority of the time, but a slightly off photo is better than a totally off photo, messed up because I forgot to change the setting. I would actually suggest finding a good post processing solution that allows you to fix this easily.

I shoot in raw format, and changing white balance is very simple with any raw editing software, like the open source UFRaw. But for the majority of the folks out there who shoot in JPG, that is not an option. I suggest the elegantly simple (and free) Picasa, which provides very easy white balance color correction.