Elizabeth Toller Productions: April 2010

Now that you are seeing the color of light and how the temperature of sun changes the color. We will move on to using the color of the light to improve the color of you images.

The color is measure in Kelvin degrees. Below is a quick reference guide about temperature but we will move on to how to use color in your camera.

Color Temperature	Light Source
1000-2000 K	Candlelight
2500-3500 K	Tungsten Bulb (household variety)
3000-4000 K	Sunrise/Sunset (clear sky)
4000-5000 K	Fluorescent Lamps
5000-5500 K	Electronic Flash
5000-6500 K	Daylight with Clear Sky (sun overhead)
6500-8000 K	Moderately Overcast Sky
9000-10000 K	Shade or Heavily Overcast Sky

This can be a very complicated process but cameras now come with pre-set adjustments to make it easy for your camera to compensate for the light and give you the best images possible. Check out your owners manual for how to change the White Balance settings for your particular camera. Most cameras use standard symbols. Below is the symbols with what they mean and a sample image shot in each of the presets.

Compare images and decide which is the one you like best. I would love to hear your comments about which one you like and why.

Auto - can be used a variety of conditions - in this case we have pretty good color:

Custom or K for Kelvin - in this case we have more clarity in the glass for more realistic color

Sunny or Daylight for use when outside in the direct light. Here it looks darker with less contrast in the image so the glass is blending into the background.

Shade - great for outdoor under the trees. The light under the tree tends to be cool or slightly blue so this setting will compensate for the blue tones by warming it up with yellow. Here the flowers are turning yellow.

Cloudy - is great for outdoors with a lot of cloud cover (like we have had many days this past winter). This one is less yellow than the Shade setting but still leaning to yellow.

Flash should be used every time you use the flash on your camera or some type of off camera flash. Since this image was photographed with a flash this setting works but could use a bit more contrast. This image is similar to the Auto setting in this case.

Fluorescent is greenish so this setting will help off set the green cast the light will create. Since Fluorescent light is green the camera on this setting will
turn images very blue.

Tungsten or Incandescent - your typical home light bulb. This light tends to be a bit reddish and this setting will counteract that color cast. The camera again will correct the light to blue.