White balance correction either in your camera or through manipulation in Lightroom or Photoshop is the process of removing color casts, so that your image does not contain a specific color cast that could be any color such as blue, yellow, green or a magenta color cast. Sometimes these color casts are caused by the environment in which you are photographing. As an example, shooting in a leafy wooded area could create a green color cast or photographing in the mountains in winter will yield a blue color cast to the snow. I’m sure you have all seen this color cast on your images. A slight blue color cast can be hard to detect on the monitor. Some color casts can be pleasing and add to the image such as warm yellow morning light.

Your camera has white balance settings that you can select to simulate for the various lighting situations you may encounter throughout the day. The hue and intensity or the “color temperature” of the sun light is continually changing. But how many of us have just set our camera to “AUTO” white balance and left it there only to correct the color shift in the computer. Did I see a few hands go up. Under mixed lighting conditions, auto white balance usually calculates an average color temperature for the entire scene, and then uses this as the white balance.

One important thing I learned early on when I started photographing with my digital camera was to set a custom white balance in my camera whenever possible. I suspect that most DSLR’s will allow you to set a custom white balance and possibly some point and shoot cameras as well.

You will have to consult your cameras user manual regarding the setting of a custom in-camera preset for white balance as some cameras use the gray reference and some cameras like mine use the white reference. So be sure to check your manual for the correct reference to use. You may have to read the manual over a few times like I had to in order to learn how to set an in-camera preset for custom white balance in the camera’s menu. I actually had to re-write that section in the Olympus manual so if by some chance I ever had to go back to having to set the custom white balance again it would be easy to perform. I can’t help you with the settings for your custom white balance here as all cameras will have their own menu settings.

A custom white balance allows you to set a white or gray reference under the same lighting in which you are photographing, and then saves that setting as the white balance for those particular photos you are taking at the time. Depending upon your camera you may have multiple slots for custom white balance. My camera provides settings for 4 individual slots to save custom white balance settings. Remember that depending upon the time of day and location where you are photographing the temperature of the light is constantly changing. Changing light in the studio is the same as natural light. Whenever I adjust or move the strobes I perform a custom white balance in my camera to ensure the skin tones render the best possible color.

First I started using a rectangular piece of foam core about 16 inches in size that I purchased at Michaels. Cheap and it worked great. But carrying around the piece of foam core I found just gets in the way so I have invested in a Lastolite EZYBalance disc, which looks like a small reflector that is about 20 inches in diameter, which folds up neatly into a small bag. It only takes a few seconds to take a shot of the EZYBalance disc and then I’m good to go for the moment at least. Most of my photographs just look better, especially when it comes to skin tones either shot outside or in the studio.

Some of the photographers I know prefer to set their camera on auto white balance and blast away and fix it later in Lightroom or Photoshop. Why spend that extra time in front of your monitor when you can be out photographing. Another advantage for me at least by having to set a custom white balance makes me think, which is a good thing and to slow down and ward off that urge to blast away.

So if you have some extra time why not try experimenting by setting a custom white balance in your camera and see how it improves your images and will definitely save time in post processing.

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