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Should you check your White Balance or Exposure?
Achieving perfectly balanced images
In all the years I have been teaching digital photography, this question is one of the most common ones I get asked: “When a photo does not look right, should I check the white balance or the exposure?”
In this article I will discuss the answer to this question. Let’s begin with a few definitions.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”What is Exposure?” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:50|text_align:left|color:%23d15b30|line_height:1″ google_fonts=”font_family:Lato%3A100%2C100italic%2C300%2C300italic%2Cregular%2Citalic%2C700%2C700italic%2C900%2C900italic|font_style:700%20bold%20italic%3A700%3Aitalic” css_animation=”bounceInRight”][vc_column_text]
Exposure is the brightness and contrast in a photo. A correct exposure is one that provides enough brightness and contrast of the scene, somewhat close to what our human eyes can see.
[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”18773″ img_size=”600×400″ add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded” css_animation=”fadeInUpBig” title=”Normal Exposure”][vc_single_image image=”18772″ img_size=”600×400″ add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded” css_animation=”fadeInUpBig” title=”Under exposed photo”][vc_single_image image=”18774″ img_size=”600×400″ add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded” css_animation=”fadeInUpBig” title=”Over exposed photo”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”What influence does White Balance have?” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:50|text_align:left|color:%23d15b30|line_height:1″ google_fonts=”font_family:Lato%3A100%2C100italic%2C300%2C300italic%2Cregular%2Citalic%2C700%2C700italic%2C900%2C900italic|font_style:700%20bold%20italic%3A700%3Aitalic” css_animation=”bounceInRight”][vc_column_text]
White Balance controls the rendition of the colours. If the colour in your photos appears off and doesn’t look right, you need to check the white balance setting.
[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”18782″ img_size=”600×400″ add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded” css_animation=”fadeInUpBig” title=”Correct White Balance”][vc_single_image image=”18779″ img_size=”600×400″ add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded” css_animation=”fadeInUpBig” title=”Incorrect White Balance”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”A simple tip to diagnose what is incorrect in a photo by evaluating exposure or white balance.” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:50|text_align:left|color:%23d15b30|line_height:1″ google_fonts=”font_family:Lato%3A100%2C100italic%2C300%2C300italic%2Cregular%2Citalic%2C700%2C700italic%2C900%2C900italic|font_style:700%20bold%20italic%3A700%3Aitalic” css_animation=”bounceInRight”][vc_column_text]
If the photo is too dark or too bright and lacks contrast, look to the exposure as the reason why. If you don’t already do this, I encourage you to get into the habit of using your Histogram to help you to judge the exposure precisely.
On the other hand, if the colours are not correct, for example too yellow or blue (Colour Cast), this is due to an incorrect white balance setting.
[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”18786″ img_size=”600×400″ add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded” css_animation=”fadeInUpBig” title=”Histogram for a correct exposed image”][vc_single_image image=”18787″ img_size=”600×400″ add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded” css_animation=”fadeInUpBig” title=”Histogram for an incorrect exposed image”][vc_column_text]
Keep in mind that most of the time an under exposed picture can show a blue cast so my suggestion is to check the exposure first and make sure it is correct and then check and adjust the white balance.
[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”18788″ img_size=”600×400″ add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded” css_animation=”fadeInUpBig” title=”Under exposed photo and colour cast”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_cta h2=”Omnilargess Photography Classes” h4=”Check our upcoming photography classes” style=”outline” color=”violet” add_button=”bottom” btn_title=”Find your workshop” btn_style=”flat” btn_color=”violet” btn_size=”lg” btn_align=”center” btn_i_type=”typicons” btn_i_icon_typicons=”typcn typcn-shopping-bag” btn_css_animation=”bounceInDown” add_icon=”top” i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-graduation-cap” i_color=”white” i_background_style=”rounded” i_background_color=”green” i_size=”xl” i_css_animation=”flipInY” css_animation=”fadeInDownBig” btn_add_icon=”true” btn_link=”url:http%3A%2F%2Fwww.omnilargess.com%2Fevents||target:%20_blank|”]Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.[/vc_cta][/vc_column][/vc_row]