Читать книгу Collins Complete Photography Course - John Garrett, Graeme Harris - Страница 31

On a digital camera, white balance solves the problem of colour casts without the need for the filters that are used with film.

The white balance button is used to set the colour according to the light.

I made this portrait of a child in a Moroccan bazaar. I like the way the shade light has made the dirty white walls blue, which has blended with the colour of the child’s clothes. If I had used the shade setting on white balance this subtle blending of colours would have been lost. JG

This portrait of the actor Alan Bates in his dressing room would have been drained of its warm glow if I had shot it on incandescent mode or auto as it would have been corrected to neutral colour balance. JG

There is no such thing as a pure white in the outside world. A building that is painted white, for instance, will change colour during the day as the colour of the light bouncing off it changes; if blue light is hitting it, the wall will photograph as blue.

White balance, or WB, gives you options for correcting colour balance for a number of different light sources. Once the camera has established a neutral white all the colours in your picture will fall into place, and the colour cast that has been taken out of the white will also be removed from the colours. Many of the new camera models also include the facility to fine-tune the colour balance in the camera after you have taken the shot, which can also be done in Photoshop.

However, this book is not intended just to help you take technically correct pictures, but to show you how to make exciting ones. The danger of digital photography is that it always attempts to make things uniform, and this is most evident on the white balance mode; WB technology has been developed to make every colour picture you shoot look as if you have taken it in direct sunlight.

The end result of this is that you could end up with blandly normal pictures that lack the excitement that all the amazingly variable light sources provide us with.

This landscape was shot on a very overcast day. I liked the composition but not the colour, which was boringly grey. By setting the white balance to incandescent I was able to get a blue cast which gave it an early-morning feel. I then tried a shot on shade setting and that warmed it to look like evening light. GH

Although it’s important to understand the white balance mode and its functions, don’t allow it to commandeer your own assessment of light.

Auto

This automatically sets your camera to suit any lighting conditions, giving a fairly good neutral colour balance. However, if you just leave white balance set to auto all the time you are in danger of missing out on capturing the subtle beauty of different light conditions. When shooting in daylight, for example, try setting the white balance to the direct sunlight setting so you can capture the different light qualities that change throughout the day.

Incandescent

An ordinary household tungsten bulb gives incandescent light. It is much warmer (yellow/orange) than daylight and requires the camera to add blue to balance it back to neutral. The incandescent setting provides a more neutral colour balance than auto, which tends to be warmer.

Fluorescent

Use this setting when you are shooting in fluorescent light; it will achieve a much better colour balance than auto white balance succeeds in doing.

Direct sunlight

Like daylight-balanced colour film, this setting gives a natural colour balance in direct sunlight in the middle of the day.

Flash

Flash tends to be slightly cooler than daylight; this setting warms it up a little.

Cloudy

On overcast days the light is cooler. This setting warms it to match direct sunlight.

Shade

Light in the shade is much cooler than bright sunlight because it mainly comes from indirect blue sky light. This setting warms the light to match direct sunlight.

Preset

You can manually set the white balance to correct any light source to neutral. This is accomplished by photographing a grey or white surface in the light in which you are working. You can also set the colour balance to a pre-selected photograph of your choice. Refer to your manual for instructions.