White Balance

Few light sources are pure white; they have a color cast of some kind. Incandescent lamps (lightbulbs) cast a yellowish light, while fluorescent light is greenish. Even outdoors, there can be light-source variations—bluish in the morning, reddish in the evening. Each of these light sources has a different color temperature.

Our eyes and brains compensate for these variances. Digital cameras try to do so with a feature called automatic white balance, but they aren’t always as good at it. That’s why many cameras have manual white balance adjustments that essentially let you tell the camera, “Hey, I’m shooting under incandescent (or fluorescent) lights now, so make some adjustments in how you record color.”

White balance adjustments are usually labeled WB, often with icons representing cloudy skies , incandescent lamps , and fluorescent lighting . You’ll probably have to switch to your camera’s manual-exposure mode to access its white balance settings.