I will be the first to admit, that early on while shooting , I had no clue about the subtle nuances of white balance or color cast. There was always that part of me that questioned, “Why does the photo look different than what I saw with my eyes?” I thought the camera would take care of that for me.

Fast forward to today, having continually learned more about the camera and only after looking at tens of thousands of my images, can I say that I am more in tune to what I need to do and put the camera to work for me. The cameras job is to get the photograph as close to neutral as possible if left to its own accord.

We can override the camera by dialing in things like WB, exposure compensation or bracketing if the dynamic range is to much for the camera to capture and we need to preserve the shadows and highlights. Even with that, the camera will just get you in the ballpark. I am OK with that as it means less post processing for me and more time shooting.

Lets look at this example above. This was shot early in the AM and the clouds were just killer over this aircraft. Early on I would have just taken the picture, happy to have gotten the shot and called it done. Now, having learned over time, I could see the color cast in camera and that fact that just the conditions would dictate a color cast needing to be removed in post. Cloudy generally means cooler and in the image above, that is the case. There is a blue color cast in the image. The camera cannot see what our eyes see and that is one reason why what is captured in the camera never looks like what your eyes see.

After post processing this image, the difference is subtle, but more accurate to what I actually saw standing on the tarmac capturing the shot. Notice how there is less blue in the overall image. Cloudy days have a tendency to not only diffuse the light, but make things more blue or cool. So, how did I arrive here. Whenever I have a cloudy day, I immediately dial in cloudy into the camera which warms the image to 6000 Kelvinn negating the cooling effect that the camera wants to record. I then used the tint slider in Camera Raw to remove the blueish tint. The differences are subtle, but nonetheless, important.

Learning to see a color cast takes some practice and to this day, I don’t always pick up it right away on the first shot or two, but after looking at images on the back of the LCD, it becomes apparent. Now, I do shoot in RAW format. I don’t want the camera biasing me in anyway by processing a JPEG with sharpening, contrast and color correction. This RAW format helps me more accurately see what needs to be dialed in or out to get as close as I can to what I am actually seeing with my eyes.

This is a skill that can be self-taught and going back and looking through your old images can be one of the best teachers for identifying conditions where color cast may occur. Personally, I use the tint slider is either Camera Raw or Lightroom adjust for the color cast. Usually if I have done a decent job in camera with my choices, I am pretty close and only need to move the slider a bit to get the desired effect.

Start looking at your images with a discerning eye to see and learn not only when WB tweaks may be in order but a tint correction. This is a powerful skill to add to your toolbox and your photographic images will benefit as a result. You will be well on your way to seeing color and WB.