I found some good information about Kelvin, so I wanted to post it. The visual has been really helpful for me. Here's the info..
Understanding White Balance By Shon.
A human eye has an amazing ability to see the light in various colors and while our brain automaticaly adjusts the colors for us, the camera unfortuntely cannot do the same. Every type of light in our surroundings, produces different colors in photography. While sometimes, colors can be used to create a mood within the photograph, often they produce undesired and unpleasent effects. Have you ever noticed the office windows look green in a photograph of a building taken at night or why pictures taken under a regular light bulb looks orange, if not then start noticing
All medium to high end cameras have different settings to correct the white balance. It is important to remember that the picture should look WHITE not BLUE, GREEN or ORANGE in order to look neutrul. The settings to correct the white balance are Auto, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Sunlight, Cloudy, flash and Shade. Alot of people use Auto which works fine most of the time but the use of correct setting can dramaticaly improve the look of your photograph. Filters are also used sometimes on SLR or similar cameras.
Kelvin Scale:
In order to learn white balance, it is important to know the Kelvin scale. Kelvin is a unit of measurement usualy in degrees for the color of light. The standard was created by heating a certain metal rod on different tempratures. Intialy when you heat the metal, it turns RED, by further heating it turn yellow and so on until it turns Purple. Normaly Red color gives a warm feeling while Blue gives a calm and cool feeling but according to the Kelvin scale, Red is more cooler than Blue. The temprature for White light is 5500o Kelvin which is also the color of direct sunlight.
Types of light sources and thier effect on photography:
Each light source has its own unique effect on photography and while some can compliment a particular picture, others can totaly ruin it. Here are the different sources of light and thier effects.
1> Sunlight: Many photographers avoid shooting in direct sun because the light is very sharp and produces strong shadows. On a sunny afternoon, the color of the sunlight is 5500oK but it changes throughout the day depending the sun's position and atmospheric conditions. Clouds filter Red so the pictures have more Blueish tones but at sunset/sunrise, the shorter wavelengths(blue) are diminished so sunset/sunrise pictures have more redish tones. Direct sunlight may appear yellow to our eye, it is nearly the best light source because it has a balance of wavelengths and produces white light.
2> Fluorescent light(Tubelight) and street lamps: Fluorescent lights look amazingly white to us but because of the Mercury vapours, it gives a greenish tint on photographs. Same problem is with street lamps but thier color is different depending on the region of the world you live. To correct it, simply change the white balance setting to Fluorescent to eliminate the green.
3> Household filament/tungsten bulbs: Since the filament of an ordinary bulb is heated on low temprature, it produces Red or Orange effect on pictures. Sometimes the Red can be used to produce a warm/sad emotion like in a wedding or a funeral but often the tint is too strong. To correct it, change the white balance to Incandescent on your camera.
4> Candle or oil-lamp light: Both the candle and lamp light have an orange tint because of slightly higher burning temprature. Photographs taken in either one of the light have thier own effects and it is usualy left oncorrected but can be corrected by the Incandescent setting on the camera. DSLR/SLR users can also add a blue filter to correct it.
5> Camera Flash: Built in camera flash is useful in many occations but it has a few cons. First, because the flash is closer to the lense, it produces Red Eye. Second, the light is very sharp and produces strong shadows making it obvious that the flash was used. Red Eye can be eliminated in most of the camera but the strong light problem remains. The color of the light is well balanced but other light sources can effect the picture so use the WB setting according to conditions.
These are the major light sources that I remember at the moment but feel free to ask or remind me of any other type.
8 comments:
This is totally awesome guys! I'm glad you are continuing the learning!
After everyone left Mike and I were talking about how we should have included a chart explaining it for those were not as comfortable or maybe using kelvin for the first time.
How many of you shot using kelvin for the first time?
That was my first time shooting with Kelvin, and I think I'll continue to use him, he's a pretty cool/warm guy. :)
That was my first time shooting in Kelvin.
me too, first time Kelvin-er here :)
my first time as well...
Me too- and Kelvin is my new boyfriend. I love him! :)
It was also my maiden kelvin voyage. It rocked! What a difference.
Hello, this is great blog. I hope one day I can join the ranks of the alumni. I did have chance to take a track at my local photography association and hear Mike Colon speak. He did talk about shooting in Kelvin. I really want to. My question is, what cameras support this? I currently use Nikon D40x and use Aperture 2 for post-production. Thanks!
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