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There are
many kinds of light when taking a photo. For example, photos taken under incandescent light have a reddish
cast, photos taken under fluorescent light have a greenish cast and those taken in the shade or under a
cloudy sky have a bluish cast. Human eyes automatically make adjustments so that light under any condition
generally looks white. However, film cameras do not have this color compensation function, so a conversion
filter was placed on the lens to compensate for the color.
For digital cameras, an automatic
white balance function performs the color compensation in the software, so that what seems
to be white can be shot in white. The result is a beautiful photo with automatic white balance
at the time of normal shooting. |
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A beautiful photo taken with the automatic white balance
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It is also
possible to create a different ambience by intentionally changing the white balance settings. For example,
take a photo with good ambience by utilizing the reddish or bluish colors. |
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photo in incandescent mode, and a bluish photo in cloudy mode |
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To fully
understand the white balance, it is necessary to understand color temperature. The following list indicates
the color temperature of light you encounter in everyday life. The higher the color temperature, the more
bluish the color looks with the human eyes, and the lower the color temperature, the more reddish it looks. |
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The
following photos were taken under different light sources such as fluorescent lights and cloudy sky. |
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Sunlight Mode |
Automatic |
Respective Dedicated Mode |
| Incandescent lights |
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| Incandescent light mode |
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| Fluorescent lights |
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| White fluorescent light mode |
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| Cloudy sky |
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| Cloudy mode |
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The photos
taken in the respective dedicated modes, such as the incandescent mode, the fluorescent light mode, and
the cloudy sky mode bring out the white color. It is notable that the photos taken in the automatic mode
slightly retain the ambience of the light. It is a matter of your preference which is better, so you can
select the mode to suit the ambience. Check the image in the viewfinder monitor to preview the color by
changing the color temperature. |
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When photos are taken with a film camera, they are nearly the same
as the ones taken with a digital camera set to sunlight mode. This is because film is produced
on the assumption that photos are taken in sunlight. |
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