Intro to Photography

Chapter 4: Available Light and White Balance

Available Light

This is any available light in any location. It can be a lamp, the sun, a candle.

White Balance

It is what the camera sees as white.

Various different light sources contain different hues.

A typical light bulb (not the new stuff) but the 100W tungsten light bulb has an an orange hue.
A candle has a warmer colour temperature than a tungsten bulb.
Sunlight has a blue hue. It changes throughout the day and ranges from orange to blue. During the day it is blue.
Older flouresent tubes had a green hue.
New floruesent tubes are bluish or orange.

To achieve a "True" image in these different light settings you need to set your camers white balance to match the lights in the room.

Why not learn more by reading up on Color Temperature at Wikipedia.

This is when the camera's white balance is set to Tungsten. This takes the orange and makes the outdoor light bluer.

This is when the camera's white balance setting is set to Outdoor. It takes the Blue out of the image which makes the tungsten light orange.

Additive colour is theory that may want to learn to understand why the colours are effective when changing White Balance settings.