WB in a camera stands for White Balance. It's a crucial setting that adjusts the colors in your photos to accurately represent white objects as white, regardless of the color temperature of the light source.
Essentially, white balance corrects color casts caused by different lighting conditions (e.g., daylight, tungsten, fluorescent). Different light sources emit light with different color temperatures, measured in Kelvin (K). Without white balance, your photos might appear too warm (yellowish/orange) or too cool (bluish).
Here's a breakdown:
-
Why is White Balance Important? Our eyes automatically adjust to different lighting conditions, so we perceive white as white, whether we're indoors under incandescent lights or outdoors in sunlight. However, a camera's sensor doesn't have this ability, so it needs white balance to accurately capture colors.
-
How White Balance Works: The camera analyzes the color temperature of the light and compensates by adding or subtracting colors to neutralize the color cast. For example, if the camera detects a warm color temperature (like from an incandescent bulb), it will add blue to counteract the yellow/orange tint.
-
White Balance Settings: Most digital cameras offer several preset white balance settings:
- Auto White Balance (AWB): The camera automatically selects the white balance setting. This works well in many situations, but it's not always accurate.
- Daylight: For shooting outdoors in sunny conditions.
- Cloudy: For shooting outdoors on cloudy days.
- Shade: For shooting in shaded areas.
- Tungsten/Incandescent: For shooting under tungsten or incandescent lights.
- Fluorescent: For shooting under fluorescent lights.
- Flash: For shooting with a flash.
- Custom White Balance: Allows you to manually set the white balance by pointing the camera at a white object and telling the camera to use that as the reference point. This is the most accurate method.
-
Manual White Balance: More advanced cameras allow for manual adjustment of the Kelvin temperature. This gives you even finer control over the color balance of your images.
By properly setting the white balance, you can ensure that the colors in your photos are accurate and pleasing. Experiment with different white balance settings to see how they affect the look of your images.
