I remember when we started learning about white balance. In the beginning, we didn’t even think about white balance until after our session was over. Our images were either too cool (blue) or too warm (orange). We could never get it right. We would always go back and fix it in post-processing. White Balance can be tricky, but we’ve come a long way since we started. So, now, we want to share what we’ve learned with you.

If you are a new photographer, the idea of white balance may seem foreign to you. This may even be the first time you have ever heard of white balance! So, what’s white balance?

White balance is the color of a photo. The color ranges from dark blue to dark orange. White balance is measured in Kelvins. The scale ranges from about 1,000 (dark orange) to 15,000 (dark blue).

White balance is important because it affects the overall skin tone of our clients. By tilting the white balance too far to one side, it can ruin the overall quality of an image.

A correct while balance makes all the difference. You can see by comparing the two photographs above why white balance is so important. As people-centered photographers, it is essential to make sure our client’s skin tone is not negatively represented.

When we first started shooting in manual mode, we used the auto white balance feature on our cameras. In auto white balance, the camera will attempt to read the colors for you, but it is not always right. Sometimes our cameras give our images an orange or blue tint, which can take a long time to fix in in post-processing.

This example is another reason, with the exception of focus, that we prefer to do everything in camera manually. As photographers, it is our job to tell the camera what to do. It is our tool to use. To achieve the perfect white balance, we have to choose the proper settings.

To set our custom white balance, we use an ExpoDisc. It has made a huge difference in our photographs!

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