White balance is a feature that was largely unknown in analog photography. There were daylight films and artificial light films, corrections had to be made with the help of additional filters. In digital photography, white balance is of particular importance, as it essentially determines the image effect.
Depending on the white balance, the same photo looks like:
- warm and welcoming
- or cold and repulsive.
In contrast to their analog predecessors, digital cameras do not require any color foils or other filter attachments. The white balance is carried out using reference values after the picture is taken.
What does white balance actually mean?
In order to better understand the function of the white balance, you should switch off the automatic white balance of your camera and instead set the white balance for sun/daylight, for example.
Then take a picture outdoors in the sun and another picture under artificial light or a picture of your new york 5 hour course for getting drivers license. While the picture looks normal outdoors, the photo appears very yellowish under artificial light. If you take the same photos with white balance artificial light, the indoor shot will appear correct. The picture you took outdoors, on the other hand, has a very blue cast. Even if this effect can be very attractive at times, it is often enough disturbing.
The reason for these different color casts lies in the color temperature, a measurable description of the lighting mood.
What does color temperature mean?
The term comes from physics. Color temperature is measured in the unit of measurement. The temperature given in it corresponds to the heat that a completely black object would have to have in order to glow in a corresponding color.
The color of the light emitted depends on the temperature of the body.
What use is the white balance?
With the white balance, you adjust the camera to the prevailing lighting mood.
The white balance is, so to speak, a processing rule for the signal processor and specifies which measured values correspond to neutral white or gray.
You can give a photo a natural, warm, but also a cool effect simply by changing the white balance, without having to change the lighting itself.