Exploring Photography: White Balance and Color Temperature

Course details

Is accurate color important in photography? Accuracy is important for portraiture and product shots, but beyond that, all's fair in photography. A blue color cast could be just right in a photo of a winter snow scene or a dusk city skyline. And a yellow color cast might help convey the heat of a desert landscape.

In this course, photographer, author, and educator Ben Long explores the art and science of white balance and color temperature. Ben explores how to adjust your camera's white-balance settings, and what to do when auto white balance goes wrong. He then surveys some optional aids for white balance, and scenarios where "inaccurate" color may well be the right stylistic choice.

Learning objectives
What is white balance?
Exploring auto white balance and understanding why it fails
Working with white-balance camera presets
Using ExpoDiscs and WhiBal cards
Making stylistic white-balance choices
Correcting mixed white balance

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - Welcome

1. Principles of White Balance

02 - What is white balance
03 - Understanding white balance and black-body radiation

2. How and Why White Balance Works

04 - Understanding auto white balance
05 - When auto white balance fails
06 - Understanding white balance and JPEGs

3. White Balance in Camera

07 - Understanding how white balance presets work
08 - Understanding how manual white balance works
09 - Understanding when a white balance adjustment is applied

4. Tools for White Balance

10 - Using the ExpoDisc for white balance
11 - Using a WhiBal card for white balance

5. White Balance Options

12 - Shifting and bracketing white balance
13 - Making stylistic white-balance choices
14 - Understanding what happens in a white-balance edit
15 - Understanding the white-balance correction options
16 - Correcting mixed white balance

Conclusion

17 - Next steps

Exploring Photography: White Balance and Color Temperature

Authors

Ben Long