Photography Class: White Balance

Alright. Friday, the last week, was the first time in this semester we used our cameras again in photography class for hunting. There were some meetings which could not be used for hunting before, and finally we're back learning. However, just my luck, as that day I had quite the flu. As a note, do not go out hunting photos when you have a cold. Guess I was just bored.

Anyway, the theme last week was about white balance. Quick notes about white balance, then. It is used to adjust the warmth of your photograph colors, either blue on one side of the spectrum, to yellow on the other side. On SLRs and some other digital cameras, there should be an option for white balance, where you could adjust the 'temperature' before taking the picture.

Why is the unit Kelvin, anyway? I know it's an SI unit, but who invented this system? Celsius is much more often used. And what temperature does it set?

Well, I think the temperature only represent color, not more. A lower number (around 1000 K, or 'tungsten light') gives a bluer hue, while a higher number (up to around 7000 K in my camera) gives a more yellowish hue. You could set the atmosphere of the picture first, then edit if need be in Photoshop.

So, here are some of my works on setting white balance. All photographed on 5/2/2016 with my Canon EOS 600D. However I did not have the time to edit in Photoshop... well you can see the original white balanced colors, then.

Shutter speed: 1/80 s
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 1600

One of my friends brought a Gundam figure (is it a Gundam?) and I managed to take this angle. Right, so the composition is not near good and I might have gone overboard with the ISO which I could tune down and increased shutter speed. But here I used the lowest white balance setting, which made it turn a nice cold blue.

Shutter speed: 1/80 s
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 400

Lovely mushroom, and the low setting of white balance made it look quite magical. Well, I could still make the composition better, though, and the blur is quite too much on the back, but I do not have a macro lens for shorter distances, sadly. Or I am just that bad at photography.

Shutter speed: 1/400 s
Aperture: f/8
ISO: 400

This looks quite like a scene from a ghost story. Could improve on technique, but just look how much atmosphere the white balance could give a picture.

Shutter speed: 1/125 s
Aperture: f/8
ISO: 400

Used the same playground rungs I photographed last year as a silhouette. This time, I made things sunny and bright with, I think it was a middle setting of white balance.

Shutter speed: 1/15 s
Aperture: f/22
ISO: 400

Shutter speed: 1/15 s
Aperture: f/22
ISO: 400

Same object, same camera settings, different white balance. I think I like the yellowish one better. I increased the white balance one step below maximum, I believe.

Shutter speed: 1/6 s
Aperture: f/22
ISO: 400

Shutter speed: 1/6 s
Aperture: f/22
ISO: 400

And finally, I have some ropes from the playground. Still, excuse the lack of focus. Again, same object, same settings, and just made the mood change from cold to warm by mixing up the white balance.

White balance, a nice tool to keep handy if you don't have Photoshop. Set the colors warmer by increasing the Kelvin number, and the reverse for cooler colors. Well, that's all I could say today, for I had no hunting sessions this Friday and there's much work to finish by next week.

Oh, it is Valentine. Such a useless celebration.