Your camera is LYING to you 😡 White Balance Explained

Have you ever wondered what the perfect white balance is?
Do you trust that your camera can ACTUALLY give it to you?

The truth is there is no perfect White Balance and no matter how hard your camera tries, it can't give it to you. That's because our cameras don't perceive color like our eyes do. It's just not capable of true color accuracy.

Using several examples, I'll prove my case. But don't get angry with your camera, it's really not it's fault. Learn color, and you'll thank me later ;)

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:10 The Blue Light Blocker Dilema
01:32 Effects of Light on Color
06:24 Effects of Light on Prints
07:39 Basic WB Fix
11:42 Advanced WB Fix
14:16 Rainbow WB Fix
16:51 Further Exploring Color

[andybalding]

Great video but maybe a follow up when you used to the blue tint glasses. Ive been wearing them a few years and realised when i did edited a headshot session with 30 people. The blue light filter glasses effected my colour judgement as the skin tones were off slightly. I now use non filter glasses when doing critical colour work. It maybe a little too niche but any ideas to compensate for this would be appreciated.

[polymerclaymakes]

Same for me! Spent a lot more money on blue light lenses, tried them for a few days and realised I couldn't judge colours right, and stopped using them with my editing.

[christopherleecowan]

I highly recommend this course because it's eye opening. I have a modified camera so I do need to set a custom w/b only to give me a better starting point and that is subjective as color correcting your monitor. I only do this because it helps me with keeping constantly in my work flow. Again I highly recommend this course is next level and will bring out the best of your vision whatever your personal choice and equipment or processes are. Thank you Blake for opening up new and exciting times in my processing.

[jenhongkong]

Great video, thanks Blake. Learning a lot from the colour course, I've replayed some of those colour grading lessons over and over...

[justinrichardson]

While it is important to understand white balance and do things intentionally when capturing and editing a photo, a lot of what you showed here is exactly why 99.9% of photographers don't need to sweat white balance all that much. Everyone's monitor is using a different color profile and people that buy your prints may frame them with tinted glass or use tinted lighting.

Understand it, yes. Be intentional, yes. Lose sleep over it? No.

[craigpiferphotography]

The struggle is real. I've worn contact for 30+ years, but just in the past 3 years or so I've started needing to add some reading glasses to the mix. I got some of the blue light blocking glasses and they definitely give a yellow tint to things. Great for my 8-5 job, not so much for working with photos. Definitely recommend a pair without the yellow tint for any color sensitive work.
I've shot on AWB for years but recently started experimenting (isn't that what photography is all about) with shooting everything at 5500K after seeing a video about it. It more closely matches the results from the old daylight balanced film that I shot for years, and is consistent if I'm going to do any stitching. I may go back to AWB eventually, but it give me something to try out and see what works best for me.
Thanks for the information.

[musiqueetmontagne]

This is why it is called white balance. In the printing days a good balance was needed to produce a print that would be generally pleasing. Today when 99% of images are viewed on a screen, often a tiny one on a phone those images will look different to almost everyone unless they have calibrated screens, very unlikely. So I just try to get a white balance that looks close to the scene actually did. That's it...

[NA-FL]

Thank you! Life long glasses wearer, blind without them. I didn’t realize how much they shift the white balance on my monitor! Take them off and there is a huge difference. Appreciate you sharing your knowledge!

[EdCatlett]

Here’s a weird one for you. A few years ago I realized that my eyes each have a different white balance. I don’t remember why but I changed to look through my viewfinder with my other eye and the white balance was totally different. That revelation made me totally rethink white balance in general. It made me realize that I cannot possibly use my own eyes to decide what colors are what. It also made me realize that maybe I shouldn't really care since every person and every monitor will treat it somewhat differently.

[rlfisher]

Hey, four eyes! (just kidding, Blake, the specs look great)
Great discussion and demonstration, even for someone (like me) with defective color vision. Great stuff.

[toxffpb]

This was outstanding. I always had green as a problem color and the lightbulb clicked on this video that the problem was because it's a mix of yellow and blue. Just last night I'd been struggling with an overly yellow pine in an orange canyon that I eventually solved with a mask, but this put into place why I needed to go to such a specific mask. And a timely video as I'm about to tackle a sunrise shot with a rainbow. I'll definitely take the color course. It's just a question of when I can work in the time.

[mrsmrs]

Fantastic video, Blake! You have shown the importance of not trusting the camera and also how important it is to do color correction. Also, you brought out that if one tries to do color grading without doing color correction first, the image will be ruined. Color correction comes first.

I bought the Color Course the day it came out. My opinion? If you want to do serious work with color in Photoshop, you need the Color Course!

[djmusicfdy]

Thanks for the excellent content - as always! And as a side bonus, I learned how to fine adjust color temperature and brightness on my Lumecube Edgelight 2.0. I have the first version as well, and always thought it was odd that they took away the fine adjustment. Thanks! 🙂

[dbaranovskiy]

Not related to the main topic, but great choice of the frames! The look good on you 👍

[Bananafroggy]

Looking distinguished in those specs, Blake.

[mikeslater]

Happy belated Birthday, you have lived the life of two 20 year olds. Great video, it gave me a few ah hah

[TC_Conner]

Great explanation Blake! Quick question, when you jumped back to your computer desk (7:40 in) and into PS, wearing your new glasses (which I will probably be wearing also come December [should I ask for blue light blockers?]), did your new glasses with blue light filtering lenses effect the way you saw how to edit the photo? And by the way, you look almost stately wearing them. 😂💜💜😂 (I use an Edge Light 2.0 too.)

[alankefauver]

Wait till you are 70 and the lenses in your eyes have started to yellow with age. LOL Had to have a lens replaced and now the new lens eye leans green/blue and the other eye (old lens) leans yellow/red. What I see in the EVF color wise varies with which eye I use. Point being, from person to person, how do we know which WB is real unless you just set a Kelvin and ignore what you see on the calibrated monitor.

[photonsonpixels]

Thanks, Blake. For a long time I have resisted wearing bluelight-blocking eyeglasses because I was afraid it would bias my photo editing. I wonder if that is a valid concern. How will you compensate for the impact of your glasses on how you perceive colors? Thank you!

[aljo.antony]

Do you take off your glasses which have the yellow filter to compensate for the blue light while you edit your photographs on the monitor?