Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
If you've ever taken a photo indoors, chances are it came out with kind of a yellowish
tint. Unless you took the shot in an office, and then it probably had a green tint. If you
just took a shot of somebody in the shade, the photo probably had a blue tint. Those
are white balance problems, and if we properly set our white balance in the camera,
we won't see these color problems (the photos will just look normal), but since most
of us shoot with our cameras set to Auto White Balance, we're going to run into them.
Luckily, we can fix them pretty easily.
The Essential
Adjustments:
Step One:
The white balance is usually the very
first thing I adjust in my own Camera
Raw workflow, because getting the
white balance right will eliminate 99%
of your color problems right off the
bat. At the top of the Basic panel (on
the right side of the Camera Raw win-
dow), are the White Balance controls.
If you look to the right of the words
“White Balance,” you'll see a pop-up
menu (shown circled here in red), and by
default it shows you the “As Shot” white
balance (you're seeing the white bal-
ance you had set in your camera when
you took the shot). I had been shooting
indoors under regular indoor lighting,
so my white balance had been set to
Tungs ten, but then I went into the studio
and didn't change my white balance,
so the first few shots came out with a
heavy bluish tint (as seen here—yeech!)
and that's why the white balance is way,
way off.
