Photography and White Balance

I think learning about white balance is one of the most important things you can do if you want to photo your own jewelry. There are many others of course

exposure
spot metering
marcro setting
tripod
light tent
composition
background

But learning to set your white balance will help you to avoid that blueish, pinkish or yellowish cast that comes from a wrong white balance setting.

The important concept is to set your white balance to match your light source. I happen to have fluorescent photo bulbs in my photo light fixtures. I set my piece inside a portable fabric light tent on a gradated white to grey photo background and set my white balance to fluorescent.

I have a Sony Cyber Shot I usually use for my jewelry, but for the purposes of the blog I also have an inexpensive Canon powershot. Even on this camera I can easily set white balance, and I've done it here to show you the result.

You'll want to put the camera into manual mode. There is usually a function or menu button which will give you a digital screen on which to change settings.

Typical white balance settings are automatic, sun, cloud, incandescent light, fluorescent light and evaluative (you aim the camera at your environment and click the shutter).

Remembering that I actually have fluorescence's in my setting, I give you the results in order.

Automatic - not terrible



Sun - a little pinkish



Cloud - not so good



Incandescent - truly horrible



Fluorescent - the best result



Evaluative - a litle yellowish



I think you can see that when the white balance matches my light source, in this case fluorescent, I get the the truest color and most pleasing background. When I chose incandescent, that gave the worst result with a blueish cast to the background.

Both my composition and exposure could be improved here, but for the purpose of the white balance lesson, I think they tell the story.

Now off to clean the studio once again for a new session of kitting.....See you all tomorrow for a love story!