Many new camera owners often seek expert’s advice when it comes to ‘White Balance’ and the role it has in modern digital photography. Is it imperative and would they be able to it utilize properly to enhance their photography?
Do you know that the colour of the light reflected from an object differ from with the colour of the light source. White objects appear as white whether you see them in the shade, sunlight or under artificial lights, and this happens because our brain is strong enough to adapt to these changes. Digital cameras are better than film cameras, and they have the power to copy this change by processing photographs considering the colour of the light source.
Digital cameras that come with an ‘automatic’ White Balance option are able to identify the brightest thing in the image, then consider it as white and make adjustments or create balances among of the other colour in the image.
The vast majority of inexperienced photographers simply leaves the White Balance setting on ‘automatic’ and the camera is able to do the work of estimating the right setting, and generally they’re quite satisfied with the results.
However, professional photographer Sam Crawford believes that if new photographers really want to make their mark in the industry, then they need to try new things and experiment with their work. To give an individual touch to the pictures, it’s a good choice for experimenting with the different white balance settings available on your camera such as:
- AWB (automatic) Cloudy
- Daylight (Bright Sun) Shade
- Tungsten etc
Then, you need to analyse what sort of difference and effects they’ve on the images. Keep in mind that you always know what the prevailing light is. On the other hand, your camera can just make assumptions!
If you try different things with these, you will soon develop the power and the skills to make the best utilisation of these options to make your photography wonderful. For instance, if you decide to utilise the ‘Cloudy’ setting, even when the surrounding is not cloudy, it will give the impact of ‘warming up’ the photograph, which is awesome for sunsets! On the other hand, the automatic setting might remove some amazing shine you wish to capture.
Sam Crawford believes that the best thing about Digital Photography is that you can explore freely without any cost, click randomly and try different things with your camera for your self-satisfaction. You skills at taking pictures will improve significantly when you become more familiar with all the settings.
You’ll be able to click pictures that can have their identity and stand apart from the crowd or clone images that have filled the photography industry. Always remember, consistent experimentation is one of the major secrets of modern photography.