White balance in different lighting conditions

Direct sunlight is referred to as "neutral" light and does not require any corrections. However, other light sources and reflections from the surroundings can change the color of the incident light and must be corrected by an opposite color shift in order to achieve neutral colors in photos.

Let’s say you’re shooting a person in the shade in the open air. The photo looks cold. A white balance with less blue and more red makes the photo warmer. Another example: The photo is taken in the shade under a tree, which makes the picture appear greenish. A white balance with less green helps here.

Automatic white balance for cameras

Nowadays almost every camera has an automatic white balance. The camera analyzes the image and independently decides on the color correction. In the simplest case, it assumes that the brightest point in the image is white and then calculates the necessary adjustment.

In most cases, cameras use such a white balance as a base setting - as long as you do not select anything else manually. This is usually marked with "A" or "Auto".

The automatic white balance for cameras works quite well depending on the model. Still, you can't compare it with a trained photographer's eye. Experience has shown that sunlight is almost always unproblematic and gives good results. However, outdoor shoots in the shade or under cloudy skies usually get slightly too cold colors. Whereas when shooting under incandescent light, the colors often appear too warm.

White balance afterwards

Of course, it is also possible to edit photos afterwards. For this, each image processing program offers different setting options. For example, you can change the red, green and blue components or use a slider to create cooler or warmer colors. There are also fully automatic image corrections or the selection of certain image effects.