color temperature – Photography Know How

Photography Basics

White Balance and Color Temperatures in Photography

The white balance feature on digital cameras is designed to correct for different kinds of light, such as sunlight, shade, indoor light, etc.

Each of these types of light have different variations of color temperature and the camera must correct for this.

Color Temperature is a measurement of the color of light. Even though our eyes see pretty much the same colors in most of the common kinds of light…such as daylight, indoor light, florescent light…these light sources are in fact quite different.

Digital Camera Features

How White Balance Works

All digital cameras have an auto white balance setting that allows the camera to detect the color of the light and balance it correctly.

When you look at a white object, say the page of a book or a sheet of white paper, it appears white to you regardless of the light source. When lit by an ordinary household bulb, or a florescent light, or outside in daylight it still looks white to your eye.

But to the camera’s eye, each of these light sources is different and each produces a tint of color on the white object. And unless the camera makes some sort of adjustment for this variation in light color, a white object will not appear white in your photos.