Exercise: Colour cast and white balance (Part 1)

For this exercise I had to find the following setting and shoot using the different white balance settings on my camera in a variety of different outdoor lighting situations.

I had to wait a few days to do some of this exercise as the weather didn't provide me with any sunny days.  However, I did manage to get some sunshine in one day and shot this local scene near to where I live.  I also used this scene as the subject for the cloudy situation.  I found it interesting to compare not only the white balance but also the effect the outdoor lighting situation had on the same subject.

Sunlight

Auto

Pretty accurate when compared to the sunlight setting for white balance.  

Sunlight

This is very similar to AWB.  The colours may be slightly washed out. 

Cloudy

This adds a little warmth to the image.  Not too much as in the Shade setting below but just a little.  

Shade 

Very warm.  Too warm for my taste.  I have lot the richness of the colours in the sky and the house and foliage too. 

I think that Auto and Sunlight are the best settings for a sunny setting.  

Cloudy
On a cloudy day the subject looks very different.

Auto

Pretty much how it looked in reality.  

Sunlight

Looks a little like Auto but it more cold.  

Cloudy 

Adds a bit of warm to the image 

Shade

This looks a little like an old fashioned image it is a bit too warm again. 

I feel Auto was the best setting here.  Cloudy might be good if you had warmed colours in the shot.  I suppose something like shooting at sunset/sunrise would be a good example of where cloudy would give added warmth.  

Shade

I used a teapot on the garden table for this series.  

Auto

Pretty cold

Sunshine

Cold with a loss of depth in the colour

Cloudy

Shade

Warm

There is almost a bluish tinge to the Auto and Sunlight settings. We lose a little of the warm of the ceramic teapot.  However I am not totally convinced that Shade is the best setting for this composition and lighting situation.  I feel the need to experiment more to see more results before I make up my mind entirely.  

This exercise proves that the Auto setting on my camera is pretty good at guessing an accurate white balance for the various lighting situations I shot in.  Perhaps instead of changing from one setting to another I could just tweak the Auto setting to give a warmer result for images taken in the shade and cloud.  This is something I intend to play around with during my next shoots.