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If you’re unsure sure how to use a camera’s White Balance settings to modify the look of an image, the quick tutorial below is just what you need to eliminate the confusion. You’ll also receive a clear answer to this common question: “WTF are Kelvins?”
“White Balance is actually one of the most important aspects of photography,” according to professional photographer Vanessa Joy. And while she happens to specialize in portraiture, her six-minute explainer pertains to just about any types of photos you shoot. Today you’ll learn the best camera setting to choose to achieve natural looing results for whatever subjects you confront.
Joy explains that White Balance involves the concept pf color temperature, measured in Kelvins, and why choosing the wrong setting for the task at hand may result in images that look too blue or too yellow. She demystifies the typical setting available, which include Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Flash, and Fluorescent.
There’s more to this quick episode, however, than color theory and clear definitions. There are practical aspects too, as Joy demonstrates exactly how to achieve realistic photos with perfect balance. It’s also possible to step outside the box and add a creative touch when a natural effect isn’t the goal.
Joy uses her Canon digital camera for this practical guide, but everything works pretty much the same with whatever brand or model your own. Some photographers are under the impression that the Auto White Balance technology in today’s modern cameras is so good that other default options are unnecessary. Unfortunately, that’s not always true, depending upon the lighting conditions you confront.
It’s also important to note that a camera’s White Balance settings don’t fall into the set-it-and-forget it category. That’s because color accuracy requires that you carefully change the selected option whenever shooting situations change. Joy says this warning holds true even when shooting in Raw.
White Balance is measured in Kelvin, as noted above, often represented by the letter K preceded by four numbers. Joy describes explains how each setting changes tones from really cool on the low end to very warm at higher settings. Mirrorless cameras make things easy in this regard, because you’ll be able to view the effect of the settings you choose on the rear LCD.
In addition to the common presets in your camera, you can create custom Kelvin values manually for ultimate control. Joy also notes that some lenses have a built-in control ring that can be set to modify White Balance as it’s rotated to the left or to the right.
There are enumerable methods for processing landscape photos to create just about any effect you can imagine. When intense colors are what you’re after, the tutorial below from the PHLOG Photography YouTube channel explains how to get the job using the favorite method of a top German pro.
The topic of today’s editing tutorial is the easy-to-use Split Toning tool, and instructor Christian Mohrle demonstrates how effective it is for boosting the impact of outdoor photos. He also explains why he calls it “Lightroom’s best color grading tool” when eye-popping tones are the goal.
Mohrle’s intent is to give his photo a vibrant sunset effect, and we recommend downloading the file in the description beneath the video so you can follow along and making the changes yourself. Mohrle says, “Before working with Split Toning it’s important to set up the base image” and he begins by dropping highlights and raising the shadows for a more balanced exposure.
Preliminary adjustments also include increasing the whites, bumping up Texture, lowering Clarity, and modifying White Balance for a much warmer look. Mohrle then uses a Linear Gradient to darken the sky while accentuating blue tones. He adds another Linear Gradient to give the foreground more detail and a very subtle vignetting effect.
Now it’s time for Mohrle’s Split Toning method that works in tandem with White Balance enhancements to create the magic. Keep in mind that he goes all in for a very intense look that that may be too strong for your taste. But you’ll see how to moderate the effect if you don’t want such a hefty change.
Mohrle adds a warm hue to the highlights and pushes saturation to the max. He then adds a warm hue to the mid-tones while significantly cranking up saturation here as well. The next step completes the color grading by applying cold tones to the shadows with a low amount of saturation.
The final step is using Photoshop to clean up the image, add a bit of glow to the top with the Gaussian Blur filter, and lighten the blending mode. The transformation is quite impressive, as you’ll see by comparing the before/after images.
Mohrle’s YouTube channel has a bunch more great tips and tricks for processing landscape and nature photos, so be sure to take a look.
