whitebalancing

White balancing is the process of adjusting the colors in an image so that white appears neutral under different lighting conditions. The goal is to remove or compensate for color casts created by the light source, so other colors render accurately.

In practice, white balance involves two main controls: color temperature and tint. Color temperature, measured in kelvin, represents how warm or cool the light is. Lower temperatures (around 2500–3500K) produce warm, yellowish tones, while higher temperatures (around 5000–6500K) yield cooler, bluish tones. Tint adjusts for green or magenta casts that can accompany certain light sources. Digital cameras and phones use a combination of scene analysis and reference information to estimate the illumination and apply a correction.

Cameras offer automatic white balance (AWB) and a range of presets such as daylight, cloudy, shade, tungsten, fluorescent, and flash, plus custom or manual white balance. Custom white balance uses a neutral reference (such as a white or gray card) to set a precise white point for a given scene. In addition to in-camera adjustments, many cameras allow manual Kelvin temperature settings for finer control.

Post-processing can also adjust white balance, with RAW files providing greater latitude because color data is preserved without baked-in corrections. JPEGs may constrain edits but still permit selective adjustments.

Common challenges include mixed lighting, strong colored lights, and color calibration differences between devices. White balancing remains essential for accurate skin tones, faithful product colors, and overall color fidelity in photography and videography.