Judging Colour Temperature Part 2

  Here we are going to look at how changing white balance settings 'in camera' and after in processing software affects the colour temperature of the images. The first image below was taken in full mid day sun, and therefore its white balance is neutral and needs no adjustment as the cameras white balance was set to daylight, but it is dreadful light for portrait photography.

Mid Day Sun, WB Daylight

 As you can see because of the strong sunlight there are very strong shadows across the face, to make a decent portrait in this light you would either have to place the sun behind the subject or use flash or reflectors to fill in the shadows.
  The next image was taken in midday shade and gives a much better light for portraits, the white balance was still set to daylight and therefore it has a bluish colour caste.

Midday Shade, WB Daylight

  The next image is the same picture, but I have corrected the white balance by using the shade setting in Lightroom. This has given the picture a much more pleasant warm tone which suits the subject much better.

Midday Shade, WB Corrected

  As you can see it has given my wife back her tan, before settling on the shade setting in Lightroom I also tried the eyedropper tool on her white T shirt, but I felt it did not have enough effect.
   Next is another portrait taken in early evening which because of the lack of blue light has a nice warm tone which suits the subject well, after it is the same image corrected using the eyedropper tool.

Evening Light, WB Daylight

Evening Light, WB Corrected

  As you can see the difference in minimal and I think I prefer the slightly warmer tone of the uncorrected picture.
  The portrait below was taken in full midday sun with the cameras white balance set to daylight and so should be neutral.

Full Midday Sun, WB Daylight

  As we can see there is no colour caste but it suffers the same fate as the earlier midday portrait.
 The next image was taken in midday shade with cameras white balance now set to shade.

Midday Shade, WB Shade

  As you can see this has removed the cool blue caste of the earlier shade portrait, but it has not had has great an effect as the shade setting in Lightroom. But I think because of the younger subject this outcome is the best, also personally I do not like pictures that are too warm, although I think it was Terry O,Neill who said that he had never had any of his clients complain that his pictures were " too f**ing warm".
  The last picture was taken in quite warm evening light with the cameras white balance set to auto.

Warm Evening Light, WB Auto

  Using the auto white balance setting has not produced as warm toned an image as the picture of my wife above with the camera set to daylight, although this was the following evening with a much' redder' light.
  As we can see from this exercise there are many different ways of affecting white balance and they all have varying results, much is down to personal taste and the brief you have been set.