White Balance

The White Balance setting on your camera controls the overall color cast of the photograph. Here’s a list of common white balance presets included with most cameras:

1. Daylight/Direct Sun

2. Cloudy

3. Shade

4. Tungsten

5. Fluorescent

6. Auto

7. Kelvin (K)

For typical photography, you can simply set the white balance to the prevailing light. If the sun is shining, put your camera on Daylight (Canon) or Direct Sun (Nikon). Is it overcast outside? Set the white balance to Cloudy.

The camera’s default setting however, is Auto. The Auto setting examines the brightest pixels in the scene to discover a colorcast. If the brightest pixels are not completely neutral, it will apply a color to correct the imbalance. So, if the highlights are ...

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