Auto White Balance was my best friend for a good two years. While I was learning how to change my aperture, shutter speed and ISO, I couldn’t handle one more custom setting. Since I shoot in RAW, my white balance was always a really easy fix in post-production. In order to simplify my post-production process, I set out to learn custom white balance with Kelvin. It was 100 times easier than I ever thought it could be!
Definitions
Let’s start with some definitions. What is white balance? Why is it important? And who the heck is Kelvin?
WHITE BALANCE • “is a camera setting that adjusts for lighting in order to make white objects appear white in photos. This is more difficult than it might seem due to the fact that light cast from different sources is different in color (technically called temperature). That is to say, light is rarely truly white in nature. The light from an incandescent or halogen bulb, for example, is red/orange in color, while that from the sun is relatively blue. A proper white balance setting in a camera will prevent, for example, a white bed sheet in a photo from appearing orange in color when it is being illuminated by a candle.” (source)
KELVIN • “is a unit of measurement for temperature.” (source)
2600K to 3600K to 4600K to 5600K
In Lightroom you can adjust white balance from 2000K to 50,000K with raw files, but most digital cameras range from 2000K to 9000K. To determine what number to set your camera to, start by studying this handy dandy chart or others on Pinterest. For most of my sessions, I start out around 5500K then adjust it to a white balance that I love!
Custom White Balance with Kelvin | PIN IT!
Kylee is the owner and founder of Kylee Ann Studios, where she’s spent more than 15 years building a photography business rooted in creativity, connection, and serving her clients well. She’s a mom, business owner, and photographer who loves making people feel comfortable and capturing the real moments that make their stories unique.
She specializes in commercial and brand photography, family photography, weddings, seniors, newborns, and more throughout Cache Valley and Northern Utah.
February 16, 2016
Kylee Maughan
