About White Balance
What is a custom white balance?
Even the best digital cameras struggle with consistently reproducing accurate color. Images shot with inconsistent or incorrect white balance settings may appear unnaturally warm or cool with too much cyan or yellow tint that can be time consuming and difficult to correct.
To help photographers cope with this problem, digital camera manufacturers designed their cameras with multiple white balance functions, including Custom White Balance, Automatic White Balance (AWB), and a variety of factory Preset color temperature settings for Sun, Shade, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Flash, and Cloudy. Prior to shooting, photographers must select one of the camera's preset white balance settings, or photograph a neutral white balance target to reference later when processing the photos in image editing software.
Unfortunately, unwanted color casts are far too common as Auto White Balance (AWB) often produces maddeningly inconsistent color results, and the fixed color temperatures assigned to the camera's Preset white balance settings are incapable of accounting for the variability of real world lighting conditions.
Setting a Custom White Balance before you begin shooting remains the most reliable way to consistently reproduce accurate, balanced color in digital cameras. Setting a custom white balance with the ExpoDisc is quick and easy to do, and the resulting custom white balance calibrates the camera to an exact color temperature at image capture. This eliminates the inconsistencies of AWB and avoids the gross generality of factory Preset color temperatures.
It’s important to use a calibrated reference tool like the ExpoDisc when setting your custom white balance because using a white balance tool that isn’t neutral across the visible spectrum will not provide your camera with an accurate representation of the color of light illuminating your subject. This will cause your camera to compensate in ways that will result in unbalanced color and unwanted color casts.
Portrait Photography with Studio Flash or LED Constant Light
The ExpoDisc v3 delivers beautiful color and natural looking skin tones when photographing portraits with studio flash or LED constant light. Simply use the ExpoDisc to set your white balance before you start shooting to improve your color balance and eliminate the inconsistency of your camera’s Auto White Balance (AWB).
Portrait Photography with Ambient Light Indoors or Outdoors
The ExpoDisc v3 excels at delivering accurate color and natural looking skin tones when photographing portraits indoors under artificial lights, or outdoors in natural settings. If you’re an event photographer shooting hundreds of images, then setting a quick custom white balance with the ExpoDisc can dramatically reduce the time you spend editing the color in your images.
Wildlife and Landscape Photography
If you’re a wildlife photographer who spends your time outdoors photographing in natural light, or a landscape photographer using IR filters to capture exotic looking infrared images, then setting a custom white balance with the ExpoDisc v3 will help you to reduce the time spent editing your photographs by improving the consistency and accuracy of the color in your images.
