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White Balance Adjustment

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# White Balance Adjustment
This playbook describes the concept of white balance and color temperature in photography, explaining their significance and outlining the steps to adjust white balance to achieve accurate color reproduction under various lighting conditions.

### Step 1: Understanding White Balance
Learn about the concept of white balance in photography, which refers to the process of removing unrealistic color casts in photos that occur under different light sources, thus ensuring that the colors in your images match the scene&#x27;s true colors.

### Step 2: Importance of Accuracy
Understand why accurate white balance is crucial for photography, as it ensures the colors in your photographs appear natural, matches the scene&#x27;s lighting conditions, and can evoke the intended mood or atmosphere.

### Step 3: Identify Light Source
Determine the type of light source present, whether it is natural (sunlight), artificial (tungsten, fluorescent), or a combination. Different light sources have different color temperatures, which can affect the white balance setting required.

### Step 4: Set Camera White Balance
Adjust the white balance on your camera. This can typically be done in several ways:

1. Use the presets such as &#x27;Daylight&#x27;, &#x27;Cloudy&#x27;, &#x27;Tungsten&#x27;, etc., appropriate for your lighting conditions.
2. Set a custom white balance manually by capturing a neutral reference (like a gray card) in the same lighting that will be illuminating your subject.
3. Adjust color temperature numerically if your camera has this function.

### Step 5: Evaluate Results
After adjusting the white balance, take a test photo and review the results on your camera&#x27;s display. Check if the colors appear natural and true to life. Adjust further if necessary.

### Step 6: Post-Processing
If the white balance is not accurate in the captured photo, use photo editing software to fine-tune it. Adjust the temperature and tint sliders until the colors look right.

## General Notes

### RAW vs JPEG
Shooting in RAW format allows greater flexibility in adjusting white balance during post-processing as compared to JPEG, which bakes the white balance setting into the image file.

### Lighting Mixtures
When dealing with mixed lighting sources (e.g., sunlight and indoor bulbs), setting white balance can be challenging. You may need to prioritize one light source over another or use local adjustments in post-processing.