As an artist, I like creative control. It’s a little more work to set every single feature of the camera, but I love making those decisions. Ultimately, cameras capture light. The light reaches the sensor. The sensor interprets the color. I hear all the time, “I’ll worry about the color in post” and that drives me insane. Sure, things can be “fixed” but why not just get it right the first time and avoid having to fix it later. How does one get right the color in their camera. White balance…
Now proper camera white balance has to take into account the “color temperature” of a light source, which refers to the relative warmth or coolness of white light. Color temperature is the measurement of the color of a light source. It is measured in Kelvin (K). The reason we adjust white balance is to get the colors in your images as accurate as possible. Here is a helpful diagram to show the relation of kelvin temperature to preset settings.
Having the white balance preset is like sticking a filter on Instagram. While it may give you an interesting or cool look, there may be better options to explore. Its amazing the difference when one shot could have been set at 2900K vs using a preset like Tungsten which is your standard 3200K. Shooting a custom white balance works well but there is something magical about dialing in that perfect kelvin temperature based on what you are trying to communicate in your project. I’ll leave you with another helpful diagram that explains color temperature and the type of light it may apply to.
