Our eyes are extremely forgiving about color balance — most scenes look fine, whether the source of light is sunlight, cloudy sky, tungsten, fluorescent — even if these light sources are mixed. But cameras are not forgiving. If you shoot in RAW mode you can simply choose the color later in computer — but only if the light sources are not mixed. (With JPEG you can still shift the color in computer later, but that brings along some quality issues.)
Understanding color balance is another area that separates many professionals from amateurs. It is not that tricky: if you shoot with reddish light, you get reddish pictures, which maybe you can fix in computer. But if you shoot with mixed reddish and blueish light, it is hard to fix both colors later.
It can be very useful to shoot something gray or white — especially if there is nothing else in the photo that you can identify as neutral. I carry around a little gray plastic card to check color, and I use it, though not often enough.
Bottom Line: Be aware of the differences in colors of light. Use them as a creative tool, or fix the problem with gels.
Left
Right
Tungsten and daylight mixed. The light shining on Nicole's face is a tungsten light — a very warm, reddish color. The background is lit by ambient daylight coming through the windows.
The photo is color adjusted so the room is about right, but Nicole is way off in yellow-red land.
Here we have adjusted the color so Nicole is about right, but the rest of the room is off in blue-land.
Here we have filtered the light on Nicole's face so that it matches the ambient room light — this is done by actually putting a small colored filter over the light source, or by putting huge colored filters over the windows.
Here we took the photo where the two colors were matched by gels and adjusted the whole photo to look warm in computer.
Nicole is in a tiny bathroom lit by a small tungsten light. (Yes, we need to get her a compact fluorescent.) See how the outside room, lit by daylight looks fine, but Nicole is way yellow-red. The image was set in computer to daylight, so the living room wins and bathroom loses.
Here we have adjusted the same image as panel 5 so that the bathroom "wins" and the living room "loses", turning bright blue. This color mismatch can often produce some very cool results, but watch out for the time where you don't want the funky color stuff to happen — and it does.
Nicole is outside in the fall, under a yellow-orange canopy. When we choose daylight for a color temperature she is a bit too yellow-orange. Compare to panel 8.
We adjusted the color in computer so the yellow-orange canopy doesn't shift the color.
Tungsten and daylight mixed. The light shining on Nicole's face is a tungsten light — a very warm, reddish color. The background is lit by ambient daylight coming through the windows.
The photo is color adjusted so the room is about right, but Nicole is way off in yellow-red land.
Here we have adjusted the color so Nicole is about right, but the rest of the room is off in blue-land.
Here we have filtered the light on Nicole's face so that it matches the ambient room light — this is done by actually putting a small colored filter over the light source, or by putting huge colored filters over the windows.
Here we took the photo where the two colors were matched by gels and adjusted the whole photo to look warm in computer.
Nicole is in a tiny bathroom lit by a small tungsten light. (Yes, we need to get her a compact fluorescent.) See how the outside room, lit by daylight looks fine, but Nicole is way yellow-red. The image was set in computer to daylight, so the living room wins and bathroom loses.
Here we have adjusted the same image as panel 5 so that the bathroom "wins" and the living room "loses", turning bright blue. This color mismatch can often produce some very cool results, but watch out for the time where you don't want the funky color stuff to happen — and it does.
Nicole is outside in the fall, under a yellow-orange canopy. When we choose daylight for a color temperature she is a bit too yellow-orange. Compare to panel 8.
We adjusted the color in computer so the yellow-orange canopy doesn't shift the color.
