Setting the White Balance with this camera is really quite simple.
The White Balance is located in the function menu so just press the function button right here. And it’s the first item so at the very top, you see mine right now is set to Tungsten. And you can just use your dial to move the setting around. You can also use the right or left navigation buttons. And just choose the light source that best suits your scene. So, if you’re outdoors and it’s a sunny day, go ahead and choose Day Light. If it’s a cloudy day, you can choose cloudy.
Usually indoor lighting is Tungsten but it might also be Fluorescent. High Fluorescent is something that I don’t really use because it seems to be very, very similar to Day Light. It’s the Fluorescent lights that are Day Light balance. So, if you do have that kind of lighting, you can go ahead and use that but usually I either go with Day Light or Fluorescent but not high fluorescent.
If you’re using the Flash, go ahead and use Flash and so make the subject a little bit less blue, the Flash is a very blue light. If you’re underwater, you can use the Underwater White Balance. And then we have two Custom White Balance options. You can set this Custom White Balance options. For example, if you have a product that you want to take pictures off and you have a couple of lights set up and you don’t know exactly what the color temperature is or you would just want to make sure that you get the most accurate color possible out of the picture, I would go ahead and use Custom White Balance.
And in order to use this, it’s really quite simple. You have these little brackets in the center of your frame. All you need to do is place a white piece of paper or a gray card. There are gray cards that are specifically made for this purpose. Anything that is completely neutral of any kind of color, you can go ahead and use so either gray or white. I’ll demonstrate with a little white piece of paper. I’ll put it in my scene. I can just place it down or just keep holding it. Basically, it doesn’t need to completely fill the entire frame, I just need to make sure that it is reflecting the light source that I’m using and that the brackets in the center of the camera are on that white piece of paper.
Then as it says up here, it says press the Display button to evaluate your White Balance. I’ll go ahead and do that. I’ll just press Display down here. And the camera blinks a little bit and calibrates for the light source that I’m using. And that’s pretty much it. Until I set different White Balance for Custom One, it will always remain with the setting that I just calibrated. So, if I come back to this situation and I want to take another picture and I use the same lights, I don’t need to keep recalibrating every time I set this it will always be calibrated to the last setting. And this is why you have two of them. Basically, you can have one calibrated for one situation and the next calibrated for a different lighting condition. So, that’s it for Custom.
It’s rare that I use Custom again just when I do product photography. Auto White Balance I don’t like very much because again it’s not going to produce the most accurate colors. I prefer using Day Light or Cloudy if I’m outdoors and Tungsten or Fluorescent if I’m indoors.
Once you have your White Balance selected, just go ahead and press the Function button to escape the Function Menu. And up here in the corner, you can see what your White Balance is set to. So, before you take your picture, just make note of that and make sure that it is the right setting. You’ll also be able to clearly see the color in the LCD screen if it’s completely off and you’ll know why. And if it is close to accurate, you should be fine.
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