Understanding White Balance | Cambridge in Colour
White balance (WB) is the process of removing unrealistic color casts, so that objects which appear white in person are rendered white in your photo. Proper camera white balance has to take into account the „color temperature“ of a light source, which refers to the relative warmth or coolness of white light. Our eyes are very good at judging what is white under different light sources, but digital cameras often have great difficulty with auto white balance (AWB) — and can create unsightly blue, orange, or even green color casts. Understanding digital white balance can help you avoid these color casts, thereby improving your photos under a wider range of lighting conditions. Color temperature describes the spectrum of light which is radiated from a „blackbody“ with that surface temperature. A blackbody is an object which absorbs all incident light — neither reflecting it nor allowing it to pass through. A rough analogue of blackbody radiation in our day to day experience might be in heating a metal or stone: these are said to become „red hot“ when they attain one temperature, and then „white hot“ for even higher temperatures. Similarly, blackbodies at different temperatures also have varying color temperatures of „white light.“ Despite its name, light which may appear white does not necessarily contain an even distribution of colors across the visible spectrum….
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