White balance (WB): the process of removing unrealistic color casts, so that objects which appear white in person are rendered or translated to the white in your photo. 

“Cameras are getting smarter and smarter, why should I care about white balance?”

The best equipment is still effected.Majority of digital images are JPEG’s

Must get it right the first timeJPEG’s have less flexibility than RAW files

Better image qualitySuccess in most lighting situations

Automatic White Balance – the camera’s best guess.

Daylight - bright, sunny days

Shade – outdoor shade

Cloudy – overcast, low contrast situations.

Flash – equivalent or interchangeable to daylight on most cameras

Fluorescent Light – artificial indoor lighting. Energy saver bulbs, tubes, etc.

Tungsten: artificial indoor lighting. Traditional light bulbs with tungsten filament.

Custom White Balance: calibrating the camera using a photo of the neutral white or light gray color of an object in a given situation.

Kelvin (unit measurement for temperature) – uses a number or setting for a specific light source.

Color Temperature Light Source

1000-2000 K  Candlelight

2500-3500 K Tungsten Bulb (household variety)

3000-4000 K  Sunrise/Sunset (clear sky)

4000-5000 K  Fluorescent Lamps

5000-5500 K  Electronic Flash

5000-6500 K Daylight with Clear Sky (sun overhead)

6500-8000 K  Moderately Overcast Sky

9000-10000 K  Shade or Heavily Overcast Sky

ISO settings: the sensitivity of image sensor to the amount of light present.

The higher the ISO, the more sensitive the image sensor.

So, with less light, the higher the ISO needs to be.

The higher the ISO setting the more “noise” or grainy the image becomes.

ISO 80 - for taking photos in bright light; excellent for close-ups, landscape, and portraits.

ISO 100 - for extra sensitivity with little, if any, reduced image quality.

ISO 200 - cloudy and overcast days. Acceptable image quality, with some visible noise.

ISO 400 - suitable for indoor photography whether or not a flash is used. Useful for “stop-action” and sports photographs.

ISO 800, 1600 and above - useful for taking photos in very low light, or outside in good light when increased shutter speeds are required.