Changing white balance in images - why is it necessary?

Mission Creek in Kelowna - before (inset) and after white balance adjustment.

I photographed this today with my iPhone 15 Pro.  Although digital cameras have an auto white balance features that corrects for off-white lighting, it is not always perfect.  This is a common occurrence in many situations and there are a number of ways to correct it.  

As you can see, the inset (straight from the camera) has not had any adjustments to it other than resizing.  The main image had some alterations, mainly colour, some effect changes, contrast, and sharpening.  The greatest impact on the image was the alteration of white balance.

Why was the image blue to begin with.  It was a sunny day, and although the sun was present (albeit at a low angle), the scene was lit by light coming from the blue sky above.  To our eyes it looks white, but that's because of the brain's processing ability to alter reality.  The camera sensor uses an algorithm to produce the jpeg image and has some white balance correction.  Rarely is it enough in such harsh lighting.

To alter an incorrect white balance, you can do some of the following things:

  • use a graphic editor like Photoshop to alter it in post.
  • alter it in-camera using editor
  • change the colour balance manually by playing with RGB channels
  • use a polarizer when taking the photo - it helps to reduce colour cast
  • pick the custom white balance tool in the camera to set it's white balance to the specific scene.  Remember to return it to auto mode when finished.
There are other means as well, but my favourite is to shoot in a raw format and post correct white balance in photoshop.  If I am doing a large number of photos and the lighting is the same I will set the custom white balance in the camera and shoot images in raw format to maintain integrity throughout the series.

The thing you will notice when your white balance is correct is that people's skin colour will improve.  This will automatically make your images look better.  It is quite amazing the difference it makes.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com

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