The Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi/450D Companion

CHAPTER 6

WHITE BALANCE

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e camera will immediately appear to go into playback mode, but note the

White Balance Set icon in the upper-left corner. If the shot of your white object

is not showing, navigate to it just as you would navigate within playback mode.

When you’ve found your white object photo, press the Set button. You are now

configured for Manual white balance.

After Manual white balance, the same shady scene has more accurate

color and a nice touch of warmth.

Unfortunately, it’s difficult to make any hard and fast rules about which white

balance setting will work best for you. In a tricky lighting situation like shade or

clouds, you’ll probably want to try Auto, the appropriate preset, and Manual, just

as we have here. e human eye is very sensitive to changes in flesh tone color, so

it’s very important to get white balance correct when shooting portraits.

TIP: Gray is Even Better than White

While Custom white balance works fine with a white object, it works even

better with a gray object. However, it needs to be a spectrally neutral gray

object, meaning it needs to be a true gray with no hint of other hues in it. It’s

best to use a white object unless you have a gray card designed specifically

for white balance, like the WhiBal card from www.whibal.com. It’s spectrally

neutral and is gray all the way through, so if it gets scratched, you can just sand ...