Introduction:
To get perfect colors in our images, we need to get the white balance right. White balance is so often overlooked. It sounds technical; it sounds like it’s going to be hard. So, what do we do? Put on auto, right? No. Automatic mode is not going to give you constantly accurate results. When I’m shooting an indoor event, the light from the ceiling will not look great. It is coming from a poor direction, it is not very bright, and it can be a weird color. I’ll actually set up my own lights (AKA studio strobes) in key locations to completely override the quality and direction of light from the ceiling lights or even the sun in some cases. However, you might not have this luxury. You might not have your own lights set up and therefore have to use the ceiling lights (AKA ambient light). Either way, I go through the same process to make sure that I’m reproducing as close to accurate colors as possible consistently all weekend.
Curious about strobes? These are the ones I use:
I use the Profoto D2 500Ws for the action photos and the Profoto B1X battery powered strobes for awards, portraits, and pretty much everything else. Olie’s Images owns nine of the D2’s and three of the B1X’s for example.
I just want to clarify right away, there are several great ways to correct your white balance. Some cost lots of money and time, others are free, and everything in between. Depending on how much time I have and how vital proper color is to me, I’ll choose the option that suits the shot. Most of the time, getting 95% or better accuracy is acceptable. Getting that extra 5% can be a huge hassle as well as cost substantially more. Also, I’m shooting Canon but Nikon, Sony, Fuji, etc.… all have a similar option. Just refer to your owner’s manual to figure out how to do it on your camera. There are, of course, many ways to correct white balance when you edit, but I’d rather just nail it in camera and not have to screw around with it later. I’ll often be shooting 10-20,000 images from the same location in a weekend. It would suck to have to go back and “fix” them later. Also, these tips apply even if you’re going to get creative with your photo’s mood or colors. It’s always best to start with the best colors you can. Be sure to read the Pro Tip at the bottom.
The Fast and Easy Way
My super fast and easy way to get pretty dang good colors goes like this. First, I get my other settings pretty much dialed in, so I have a properly exposed photo. (shutter speed, ISO, aperture) Then I find something white or neutral grey. I have a little pop-up disc that was less than $20 for this, but in a pinch, I’ve used regular old copy paper since that’s usually handy and almost free. Copy paper tends to have a little bit of a blue tint even if our eyes can’t really tell that it is blue, so you may have to correct this. Using copy paper tends to make your images a little yellow because the camera compensates for the paper’s blue tone. The paper technique will get you pretty close. In Canon cameras, you can correct this in-camera. I spent $20 and got something that is actually 18% gray, but we can still solve this problem in camera too. I”ll include an Amazon link to it below. (Affiliate link)
Hold this white or gray object out so that the same light that is going to illuminate your subject hits your object. Then snap a picture of it with the camera you are going to use. It should be out of focus and fill most of the frame. It is ideal to fill the whole frame, but I understand that isn’t always easy which is why I opted for the 24″ version. Now, you should have a picture of a blurry piece of paper or whatever object you decided to use. It probably doesn’t look white, but even if it does, I would still continue.
Now, you can put down the object. Open up the menu in your camera, and there should be something like “Set Custom White Balance” or “Set Custom WB”. In this menu, there’s an option “Select Image on Card”. Use this to select the out-of-focus image you just shot. It should be the image that comes up first, but if not, scroll until you find it. Click the option that lets you use the WB data from this image for Custom White Balance. Then choose “Set as White Balance” or go into your white balance menu and choose the Custom White Balance setting.
That’s it.
Trust me, it takes way longer to read this blog post than to actually do it. You’ll get good at it and soon be able to do it in seconds without having to think it through. Now, there’s nothing left to do except make sure the custom white balance is selected. From now until you leave this location, your images will have a proper white balance.
Pro Tip:
If you shoot with your own lights (strobes), you can do some pretty creative things with this method. Personally, I love the look of a deep blue sky behind my model. To make the sky blue but keep your model the right color, you’ll need a gel. A gel is basically just a colored plastic sheet you put in front of a light source to change its color. For this trick, get a CTO (Color Temperature Orange) gel and put it on the light, so it covers all the light coming out. Now, the light coming out will be orange (the opposite of blue). Stay with me here; it can be hard to conceptualize why we are making the light orange if we want a blue sky. We are “tricking” the camera by doing this. When we set a custom white balance, we essentially tell the camera that “this” is white. The camera uses the opposite color of whatever it sees to bring the image to be neutral. When we show the camera orange, for example, it uses blue to neutralize the color. Take something white like we talked about above, pop that orange light on it, then set that image as a custom white balance. Now, take a picture of your model using that light. You’ll see that everywhere the “orange” light hits is actually the correct color, and everywhere else has a blue tone. If you do this against a blue sky, it looks very natural, but the sky is a more saturated blue. Feel free to try this with all the other colors! Of course, you can do this in post-process, but it is so easy to do in-camera. Plus, it is way faster. It doesn’t just affect the sky but anything that isn’t affected by the orange light. In the photo below, you’ll notice the ground looks blue but her face is the right color.
That’s all for this one! Hope you learned from this quick tip. Have fun!
The links in this post are affiliate links. Equine Photo School receives a small commission if you use these links to shop on Amazon but they will not cost you any extra. Thank you for supporting Equine Photo School. 🙂
