White balance. What is it and what is it eaten with? What is White Balance in Digital Photography? Gray background 18 for white balance

How do you think the three photographs below are different?

Of course - white balance! It is not difficult to notice that in the first photo the white balance is shifted to the warm part of the spectrum (this is what this color distortion is called - when the image (including napkins, which should be white!) seems to “turn yellow.” In the second photo, the white balance is close to normal But in the third photo, the BB is shifted to the cold - violet side of the spectrum, so the napkins no longer look completely white, but rather bluish...

Without delving into the jungle of terminology, let's try to define white balance. So, we can say that White balance is a measure of the correctness of the color characteristics of an image. Often, instead of the phrase “white balance”, the abbreviation BB is used; we can also use this abbreviation in the text of this site.

So, now it has become clear that if you see that the photo is a little more yellowish than it should be, or, on the contrary, “cool,” then you should look for the reason for this in incorrect white balance settings!

Why do inaccuracies occur in the white balance settings? The answer is simple: different light sources have so-called different color temperatures! For example, the Sun gives a rather “warm” light, and so does an incandescent lamp. But the light of fluorescent lamps is quite “cold”... You probably yourself have noticed that, for example, the same green dress can look bright green in sunlight, and almost blue in the light of sodium street lighting lamps. And if it’s not always easy for human eyes to adjust to the color temperature of a light source, then what can we say about cameras? In addition, there may be several light sources of different color temperatures in the frame, for example, sunlight from a window and incandescent lamps from a home chandelier - in this case, the camera is unlikely to be able to “guess” which light source to focus on when adjusting colors, what value BB install! In such cases, the camera's automation is not effective, and manual white balance adjustment is used.

First of all, the BB can be influenced by changing the camera settings. Let's look at these settings using the example of the menu of Canon cameras. More precisely, using the example of the Canon 600D camera, its menu is in many ways similar to the menu of such popular models as 450D, 500D, 550D, 650D.

As you can see in the picture, using this menu you can change the BB - either using ready-made presets, or choosing your own parameters for this value. I would not recommend using the existing white balance presets unless absolutely necessary, because... Most often, the camera works correctly with this parameter - in automatic mode, especially outdoors - in natural light - taking into account all its nuances.

However, there is a possibility White balance settings - manually! Most often this type of setting is called setting the white balance “on a white sheet”. This makes it possible to precisely “adjust” to a specific light source. This is how this procedure is described in the instructions for the Canon 600D camera:

You can find information on how to use a similar feature on cameras from other companies or models in the operating instructions for your device.

But that's not all! Some cameras (for example, the same Canon 600D) have the ability to adjust the color tone of a photo - without using a white sheet! In this case, the effect is similar to that as if you were sorting through color filters. The following illustration shows an example of such a setup:

Some cameras also have "white balance bracketing", this means that three photographs taken in a row will have different white balance (if you allow it in the settings) so that at least one of the frames “hits the spot.” This mode is used when you are not sure that the BB settings are correct.

But... and that's not all! If you take photographs with a DSLR, then it probably has a function for shooting in RAW format! This wonderful format is distinguished by the fact that when shooting in it, you don’t have to worry about the white balance while shooting, because it can be changed as you like - later, using a special program. Typically, such programs are included with any SLR camera. I would recommend using the program Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), but more details about it will be written in another article.

That's all for today :) Let your white color remain white in the photos too!

Do you know this picture when a photograph looks unnatural and the colors in the picture are greatly distorted? What does this mean? This indicates that the white balance in the camera was not adjusted and the digital automatic balance meter made an error; it did not correctly determine the color component of the frame and distorted the color settings.

If in Photoshop or any other graphic editor you select a conditionally white area, which our eye in a familiar environment perceives as an area of ​​white color (in the Blue Tit these are the “cheeks”), then you will notice that the color component in three RGB color channels will have the same values ​​- R:218, G:218, B:218 (for a photo with the correct white balance). In the bottom photo, these values ​​will be noticeably different R: 162, G: 186, B: 237 (photo with incorrect white balance, with a clear predominance of blue).

If there are a lot of such white fragments in the frame, then the camera processor will be able to rely on these areas independently, automatically determine the balance and correctly convey the colors, and if there are few such white fragments in the frame or there are none at all, then the processor begins to “get confused” and transmits The color shades are wrong. All this, of course, is conditional; the measurement process in a camera is much more complicated and the camera’s processor can help with this.

How to fix this and set the correct white balance?

Theoretically, there are two ways:
1) before shooting, teach the camera to understand white balance;
2) after shooting, process the image in a graphics editor.

Many people believe that processing photos in a graphics editor after taking a photo is easier and faster than setting manual white balance in the camera before the shooting itself, especially if you shoot not in JPEG, but in RAW (NEF). For RAW(NEF) you can agree only under certain conditions:

1) you need to shoot in RAW (NEF), and not in JPEG;
2) the photographs should contain supporting fragments of conventionally white (like the cheeks of a tit);
3) the number of photographs for processing should not exceed 20-50, because This is a rather monotonous and tedious task.

If you don’t know how to work with RAW (NEF), if there are suddenly no white fragments in the pictures, if the volume of photographs is very large, then processing in a graphics editor will turn into agony and take a lot of time, and in some cases, extracting the correct white balance from JPEG will be difficult extremely difficult or almost impossible.

Setting up the camera before shooting

All instructions write (and photographers themselves recommend) to adjust the balance with a white sheet of paper. This confuses many newbies, especially when filming takes place outside the home/office. Where can I get this piece of paper and how can I carry it with me? Forget about the white sheet of paper!

We take a regular grocery bag from the store. The package should be white, translucent enough to allow some light to pass through and should not contain colored impurities. If the walls of the bag have such transparency that you can clearly read the inscription on the camera strap, then you will need two such bags so that it would be difficult to read the inscription through the layers of the double bag. Next, temporarily set the AF-MF switch on the lens to the “MF” position and put the bag on the lens so that the front lens of the lens is completely covered by the bag and there are no inscriptions or drawings on the bag at this point. Then we point the camera in the direction where our subject is located and take one photo. Return the switch on the lens to “AF” mode and go to the camera menu.

In the camera menu, we find and select the “Manual WB” (Manual White Balance) option, select our last frame with the package as a reference white image and press the “SET” confirmation. Then in the Menu we find the “White Balance” option and change “Auto” to “Manual” as shown in the figure.

We put the bag in our pocket and take pictures until the lighting of the place where you are shooting changes, for example, the Sun has gone behind the clouds, fluorescent lamps have been turned on instead of incandescent lamps, you have entered a dense forest from a sunny clearing, etc. . In this case, repeat the entire procedure again:

1) lens -> "MF";
2) put the bag on the lens;
3) pointed the camera at the object and took a frame;
4) put the package and lens back to “AF”;
5) in Menu -> "Manual BB";
6) selected the last frame with the package;
7) in the Menu we check -> “White Balance”, “Auto” -> “Manual”.

Now you can shoot in both RAW (NEF) and JPG, the processor will have in its memory a reference, reference image of a white package as a sample and will already use it in its calculations, replacing the white cheeks of a tit with a white package.

How to fix white balance in Photoshop?

If something didn’t work out for you or you forgot to turn on the manual balance in the camera, then the situation can always be corrected if you shoot in RAW (NEF). It is enough to open the RAW (NEF) file in editing mode, select the White Balance Tool (I) option, the Ctrl + I key combination, a tool in the form of a pipette will appear, all you have to do is poke it into the area of ​​the tit’s cheek, in the same area that our eye actually sees perceives life as the realm of white. As soon as you do this, the entire photo will immediately change its color, and the RGB values ​​will become equal to each other - R: 218, G: 218, B: 218. In my case, this value is 218, you can have 224 or 188 or any other, the main thing is that all RGB values ​​are the same - R:224, G:224, B:224 or R:188, G:188, B:188 .

What to do if there are no white objects in the photo?

If there is not a single object in the photo that contains a conventionally white color, then you need to look for fragments of the entire spectrum of gray, what in real life our eye perceives as pure gray, without admixtures of other colors - this could be asphalt or concrete , and stones, if we are talking about a landscape and there is no person in the frame. If we are talking about portraits of people and there is not a single piece of white or gray fabric on the clothes, then as a last resort you can use a fragment of the white area of ​​​​the eyeball. If this doesn’t help, our model came from another planet and her eyes are yellow, then we move on to plan “B”.

Plan "B" will require you to have basic knowledge of what color temperature is and what values ​​exist in photographic conditions with standard or close to standard lighting. Below is a table describing lighting and color temperature in Kelvin. The values ​​from the table will initially give you numerical guidelines by which you can adjust the value of the “Temperature” parameter and change the white balance close to the conditions at the time of shooting. From 5000K to 6000K - color temperature for typical street photography, from 2200K to 2800K - filming gatherings in the kitchen under incandescent light, from 3500K to 4500K - filming in an office where fluorescent lamps from Armstrong lamps are lit, etc. By choosing one of the table values ​​for the type of lighting, you can bring the color balance to the most natural, to the colors that our eyes perceived in the environment at the time of shooting.

What should I do if I shoot in JPEG?

Well, what can I say? All that remains is to envy you, you still have everything ahead! There is a very exciting path ahead of mastering the works of Dan Maruglis, I would say Bibles on Photoshop: “PHOTOSHOP for professionals” and “Photoshop LAB Color”. It is not possible to reflect the volume of information from these works within the framework of this article; moreover, to master these techniques, you must have a professional calibrated monitor of 24" or more with a matrix no worse than IPS and free time for study from 1 to 6 months.

In any case, you have to choose between an ordinary package from the store and mastering a whole science called “Color space”, although you don’t have to bother and leave everything as it is, the titmouse doesn’t care what color her cheeks are in your photos :)

If you want to take a high-quality photograph, there is no need to rush anywhere. Take a test frame, see what happens immediately on the screen, analyze the result. Very often it is necessary to adjust the exposure and adjust the white balance.

If color distortion is not your artistic idea, then most likely you will be concerned with obtaining natural colors. This is not always possible in automatic mode, especially under artificial lighting; in this case, you need to adjust the white balance manually. I will tell you how this is done on Nikons, and on all other devices you can easily guess how to achieve this. The most important thing is to understand what you want to get.

In general, Nikon DSLRs work great in automatic mode, but if you shoot in dim incandescent light or in street light in the evening, then no camera can handle it. Even Nikon D700 and D3, which work fantastically in automatic mode, sometimes give up. IN previous article Kostya showed how to save the colors in a photo using a machine, but an attentive reader will notice that the yellowness remains.

And this is the same guy in the same club, but I was already armed with a Nikon D700:

As you can see, the new camera did a better job of adjusting white balance, partly due to the fact that it FX sensor.

If you have one wheel on the camera, that's it. If two, then read the continuation.

If you have two wheels, then holding WB and rotating the front wheel will reveal some interesting things. In automatic mode on some cameras you can make mode corrections in the range A6, A5, ... 0 ... B5, B6. In area “A” the colors will be warmer, in “B” they will be cooler. Only 6 gradations in each direction. This is useful when you are completely satisfied with the automatic mode, but suddenly want a little warmer. PRE will not save you in such a situation, and selecting the temperature will take a long time. The title photo shows mode A with correction A2 (warm tones).

Color temperature is great for conveying mood, so I recommend using this if you want your photos to evoke emotion.

If you rotate the front wheel in PRE mode, on expensive cameras it will be d-0, d-1, ... d-4. Your preset white balance values ​​(based on a business card or something else) can be saved; in total, you can remember 4 values ​​on the D700, for example. The last measurement will always be saved in d-0. This is useful when you need to remember the settings for street lighting, because it is more or less the same everywhere, and this functionality will save you time, especially at night, when there is simply no passerby in white.

Regarding temperature adjustment, this is the rarest case you will encounter. On some devices this is mode K in the list of WB modes, or through the menu, as on inexpensive cameras. You just set the temperature in Kelvin and that’s it. This is rather interesting for research purposes; in real life you will not have time for this. Don’t forget to return the white balance to automatic mode after the photo shoot, so that the next day you won’t be surprised why everything is blue.

Monitor the white balance in your body and in your photographs.

15.05.2016 4673 reference Information 0

You've probably heard many times that correct composition and correct exposure are the main components of successful photography. But in the camera settings you find “white balance” (WB, as it is often called), which novice amateur photographers ignore and set to automatic mode. The camera's automation can make a mistake when installing the BB, and ruin a good shot. So what is this mysterious “white balance”, what is it eaten with? Is this difficult to understand? Fortunately, no, and that’s what we’ll talk about now.

White balance is a color correction process that causes objects that the eye sees as white to appear white in your photo. A person sees white due to the fact that the brain corrects reflected light with different spectra and at different temperatures. An automatic camera does the same thing - it changes the color temperature, measured in Kelvin. However, the human brain is much more accurate than the automatic BB mode of any “sophisticated” camera.

Why is this parameter needed and why is it called white balance? Look here. Let's try to conduct a grandiose scientific experiment with you. We have a window, day. The room has electric lighting. Take two identical white sheets of paper. Place one of them in the light coming from the window. Place the other one so that it is illuminated by an electric lamp. In the photo below, one leaf is closer to the camera and illuminated by street light. (The street behind the photographer). Another sheet, in the girl’s hands, is illuminated with electric light. Look at each leaf in turn - they are different colors!

Why is it so important to monitor BB? The answer is very simple: by setting the correct WB you can achieve the “correct colors” of your photo. For example, for a portrait, the skin should have a natural color. If the BB is not installed correctly, the color will be mixed with yellowness or even worse - with a tint of blue. In addition, the photographer is deprived of the opportunity to obtain in the image that atmosphere, without which it is impossible to create an artistic photograph. Along with the emotional impact, the sense of place and time of the event may also disappear. However, the photographer does not always strive for realism. Sometimes you can create various effects that differ from realistic ones, using BB as a means of artistic expression. For example, try taking a shot in daylight with the Wolfarm BB setup.

So, in order to add an emotional component to the image, it is necessary to take control of the BB parameters. In your camera you will find preset color temperature values ​​depending on the conditions: “Day”, “Cloudy”, “Flash”, “Shadow”, which will help to significantly avoid gross errors in color rendition. For finer tuning, “advanced” cameras make it possible to directly set the color temperature from 1000 K (artificial lighting) to 11000 K (sunny day) and higher. Thus, the photographer has the opportunity to set the exact color temperature value and achieve realistic color rendition.

When photographing in RAW, it is possible to set the color temperature on the computer while working in a graphics editor without losing overall quality. However, it must be remembered that post-processing exists to make a good shot even better, and not to save “dead” and “lifeless” images. Moreover, when working at the monitor, you will have to rely on erroneous automation settings, and not on the scene visible in real lighting conditions.

Of the above manual settings, I would recommend only three (the rest are not in use) and the auto mode.

Automatic balance (AUTO WB). Almost 90% of the photos I take are taken with an automatic BB. With normal daylight, the camera never makes mistakes; problems can only arise when you have different types of lighting. For example, you are sitting in a room with artificial lighting, and daylight comes in from the window. Also, the camera will have problems when there is fluorescent lighting or incandescent light somewhere. In all other cases, feel free to take photos with the auto setting.

BB "incandescent lamp". An ordinary, well-loved light bulb with a tungsten spiral, which we are all so accustomed to, can easily ruin our frame with its yellowish tint. Therefore, it is better to spend time and adjust the white balance than to work and drag out the photo in the editor.

BB "fluorescent lamp"(daylight lamp). Similar to an incandescent lamp, a fluorescent lamp will ruin our shot if we leave the white balance in automatic mode, so I advise you not to be lazy and change the WB settings.

BB "day"(direct sun). This tincture is useless because... The camera perfectly determines the white balance in automatic mode.

BB "flash". Forget about this setting altogether, because when the flash is on, auto white balance automatically switches to this mode.

BB "cloudy". With this setting, all colors go warm, I sometimes use this white balance, but very rarely.

BB "shadow". But I’m comfortable with this mode; I like the shade that I end up getting when the object is in the shadow.

If you can’t determine the white balance yourself, measure the WB using a white sheet (or not necessarily a sheet, just a white area) using the “Preset White Balance” function, and the camera will automatically determine the white balance. Only this function works well on expensive DSLRs, but it doesn’t always work on point-and-shoot cameras and amateur cameras.

Summary

It's up to you to decide whether to adjust the white balance in the editor or do it locally by setting it in the camera. But this definitely needs to be done, especially when you have fluorescent lighting or a regular incandescent lamp. In all other cases, you can safely take photographs with automatic white balance settings.

And one more piece of advice. Experiment. Take photos using different BB presets. Over time, you will “get your hand” and “train your eye.” If it doesn’t work out, or you don’t have the opportunity to retake the frame, and the white balance leaves much to be desired, you can simply convert the photo to monochrome.

All the photography to you!

Have we all seen color photographs in which all the colors turned out with some kind of yellowish or bluish tint? You might think that your camera is not good enough... or something is broken in it... :o)

In fact, any working camera (even the most expensive) can take such photos. It's all about a setting that is mysterious for a beginner, which professional photographers often shorten to two letters - BB. The two letters BB in the language of photographers mean White Balance - a very strange phrase, isn’t it? In this tutorial you will learn what white balance (WB) is and how to set it.

Colorful temperature

Have you probably felt discomfort when the fluorescent or energy-saving lamp you bought glows with an unpleasant bluish color? But another, the same lamp gives a pleasant “warm” light similar to the light of the sun...

The thing is that any light source has its own color, which, when reflected from the objects being photographed, changes their hue. This property of light is called color temperature, and in fact, the purchased lamps differed in color temperature, although they looked exactly the same (by the way, the color temperature of the lamps is usually indicated on the packaging.) Even sunlight has a different color temperature depending on time year, the position of the solar disk above the horizon, and the height of the photographing location.

If you have ever seen a blacksmith heat a piece of iron, you may have noticed that as the heating temperature increases, its color changes - from blue, through dark red and yellow to almost white. In this case, each temperature of the workpiece corresponds to a specific color.

The color temperature of light sources is measured in a similar way - in degrees Kelvin and denoted by °K or simply the letter K. A device for measuring color temperature is called a colorimeter - please do not confuse it with a calorimeter: o) - this device measures heat...

Measuring the color temperature of light is based on the ratio of the amount of cold (blue) and warm (red) in the spectrum of the source. A light source with a predominance of red hues (warm) has a lower temperature. If there is more blue tint, it is considered that the color temperature of the light source is higher and the light is cold.

• 1000K
• 2000K
• 3000K
• 4000K
• 5000K
• 6000K
• 7000K
• 8000K
• 9000 K

For reference: the color temperature of a light source depends on the wavelength - the shorter the wavelength of the light source, the higher the color temperature. However, the photographer does not need to know this dependence: o), the photographer just needs to remember that cool colors have a higher color temperature.

The color of the objects around us depends on the color temperature of the light source, but our brain makes adjustments to our color perception. The human eye quickly and easily adapts to different color temperatures. For example, a white sheet of paper is always white for a person, regardless of the light source. Photographic film transmits the correct color only in a narrow range of color temperatures, which is why there is film for daylight and for incandescent light.

The matrix of a digital camera, just like photographic film, is not able to correctly convey colors over the entire range of color temperatures. But the matrix, like film, cannot be replaced. Therefore, digital cameras have a special sensor that measures color temperature automatically.

A digital camera can adjust to the color temperature of light sources.
This adjustment is called setting white balance in the camera.
usually denoted in English: WB - White Balance.
Automatic white balance adjustment is designated AWB - Auto White Balance.

Setting White Balance - WB

In automatic white balance mode AWB, different digital cameras render colors slightly differently. This depends on the color temperature adjustment algorithm. Yes, and the accuracy of white balance adjustment in automatic AWB mode is not always accurate.

In difficult lighting conditions, your camera may not be able to capture the correct colors accurately enough. Most often this happens when light from sources with different color temperatures is mixed. For example, daylight and incandescent lamps. Incorrect white balance (WB) setting in the camera leads to incorrect color rendition in photographs!

Here is the typical result when using an incandescent lamp:

And this photo was taken in a mountainous area:

Therefore, a photographer often has to “tell” his camera which color is considered white. A professional photographer who shoots with an expensive SLR camera can set the color temperature of the light source directly in Kelvin by adjusting the WB.

Table of color temperatures of some light sources*

* The color temperature values ​​given in the table are approximate. For example, the color temperature of a new incandescent lamp or a new flash will be higher. Don't forget that fluorescent lamps have different color temperatures; it is usually indicated on the lamp bulb or its packaging.

But cameras for beginner photographers also allow you to adjust the white balance settings - in addition to automatically adjusting the AWB white balance, the photographer can select preset modes for assessing color temperature. For example: incandescent lamps, fluorescent lamps (advertising lights), sunny day, cloudy day.

It is much better if your camera allows you to adjust the white balance manually. Professional photographers often use a reference 18% gray card. But if you don't have such a card, you can use any white background, such as a regular sheet of white paper, to fine-tune the white balance. This setting is often denoted by the letters MWB (Manual White Balance) or a special icon

Manual White Balance - MWB

To manually set white balance, you will need a regular sheet of white paper. As a last resort, any white, not too glossy object will do - a white blouse or a white refrigerator.

To set white balance manually, enter the white balance menu of your digital camera and select manual white balance. After this, point your camera lens at the white object so that the entire frame is filled one color. I wrote one color because until you set the correct white balance, your white object in the LCD monitor will be off-white!

Now, press the white balance lock button, and after a couple of seconds, your white sheet on the camera screen will turn white. That's it - you've just finished setting white balance manually!

ATTENTION!

In some cameras, to manually adjust the WB “on a white sheet”, you first need to take a picture of a white sheet, then in the WB white balance adjustment menu, you must select the MWB manual white balance adjustment mode and point to the just taken frame of a white sheet. After this, the camera will consider the white sheet image as the reference for all subsequent frames until you change the white balance settings again.

Make it a rule, while taking photos, to look on your monitor
camera objects that should be white
and compare their real color with the color on the camera screen.

When setting white balance manually, be careful when choosing a reference white color. If your reference is not white enough, then the color rendition in your photo will not be correct.