So I know right off the bat that this post may or may not be well liked because of the title but it came up recently so it seemed like a good learning experience to write about. What’s the right white balance? Notice I said right not best. There is no such thing as best. The answer is, the right one is the one that best tells the story that you’re trying to communicate in the photograph at the moment of capture. Since each moment is different it’s impossible to say that one works the best with everything. This Bull Elk was the perfect example this past week.
On a very windy day this bull was bedded down with his buddy just below him on top of a ridge. He was very nice to lay down where he did. Notice the ears, as I mentioned earlier this week little details like the ears forward is important. As for the white balance, that day was nothing but clouds with intermittent sun shining down on the ridge. So what was the answer? First off, he’s a light subject putting a dark background behind him makes him pop more. Second, the white balance depended on what the light was doing. When it was behind the clouds, the light was very different from when it was directly on him. I ended up jumping back and forth between Auto, this image and Cloudy WB.
This image was taken in cloudy WB. The difference when the sun is behind the clouds is pretty apparent. But there is another option.
This last one was taken with more direct light on the Elk, notice the harsh shadow under the neck. I went back to Auto WB but I added in A +2.0. This raised the Kelvin Temperature which brought out more warmth in the image. This is a very useful option when it comes to white balance. While holding down the WB button and spinning the front dial you can change the kelvin temperature either up or down, B or A, which adds blue or adds yellow. Thus changing how cold or warm the image is. So in the end the answer kept changing as the scenario kept changing and how I wanted to tell the story. This applies the same to you.
Images captured with Nikon D5, 600 f/4, TC-17EII, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film