Weekly Photo Tip – Cloudy White Balance
February 24th, 2010I’ve received several request to give simple camera/post-production/shooting tips so here is my first of many weekly photo tips. Please feel free to leave comments with questions as well as suggestions for other photo tips. Enjoy!
Cloudy White Balance, My Go-To
Starting photographers often complain about dull or blue tinted photos that make their subjects seem lifeless. My cure for this is to start using cloudy white balance. This setting can be found on most digital point-and-shoot as well as DSLR cameras and uses a cloud symbol. I use cloudy white balance when shooting in direct sunlight, when using a flash, indoors with natural light coming in from windows as well as any other situation where my images seem too cool. This works great for natural skin tones.
Below is an example of a piece of finished wood that is inside near a window, the difference is stunning.
Auto White Balance vs. Cloudy White Balance
Thanks for the post, Casey! It’s funny, I’ve had my DSLR for 3 or 4 years now and JUST discovered this little trick a couple days ago while shooting headshots for my younger brother. Using the cloudy or shade white balance setting really warmed up skin tones. It was a great help, especially considering the day was rather overcast and very cold out. Take a look at the photos: http://gallery.me.com/robbmajor#100188
Thanks Case – I have still done this ever since you showed it to me a few years back…I was actually wondering if you still used that trick:) Keep it comin’ !
Nice job on the photos, Robb. You also did a good job of using the lines in the background to help bring the viewers eye to your subject. I would also try to overexpose them a little more. Thanks for sharing.
Nice post, I’ll have to give this a try. Although my biggest issue comes from shooting indoors at night with lamps on and everything being WAY too warm. Thankfully summer will be here soon so there will be some sunlight around after I get home from work in the evenings.
Wow this can save so much time in editing. Love these tips! All I need now are some for a beginner to external flashes and I’m ready to take a big step up with some of my shots! Thanks Casey.
+APERTURE ROCKS!
HI Casey,
Sure do enjoy watching you mature as a photographer! I didn’t see any rules on how the Aperture winners will be chosen, so I thought a little begging would be in line… I have a new baby girl Aspen Zia Brady, she is 5 months old and I am starting to collect a bit of images of her as you can imagine. I shouldn’t keep them on my work computer any more they’re getting in the way, so I’m buying a Mac and I sure could use a copy of Aperture from my old buddy Casey whom I’ve known since high school. I remember the day you and Josh went riding around and you came back with the garage image, I wasn’t sure if that cool image was a fluke or if you were the real deal, now you’ve gone further than I ever would have thought. Who would have guessed, pretty cool. I have pictures on facebook of Aspen, go to my profile and you’ll see her, afterwards you’ll think to yourself, “now that Eric sure does need a copy of Aperture!” Cause you know Casey… +APERTURE ROCKS!
Hi, Casey-
Glad to see you’ve started a weekly “tips” post… I’ve become a fan of your work since recently discovering your site and will no doubt be trying the cloudy white balance trick sometime soon. I have an idea for a post, albeit a rather pedestrian one: How about some advice on organizing and cataloging photos? I shoot a lot of film and also use a DSLR. I label scanned images according to the date the negative was exposed, my DSLR labels images by shutter instances, and I title my “best” photos when I put them into Lightroom. I’m almost embarrassed to ask this question since the simple act of storing files should be pretty straightforward, but I think I’m just too close to the problem and perhaps a bit set in my ways. There has to be a clean way to combine and store these images in such a way that 2 years from now and I can look at a specific file and know what date it was made, what format it is, something about the subject, etc. Something tells me you’re answer to this problem is going to refer to the fact that “+APERTURE ROCKS!”.
Kieran,
Great suggestion, I will get working on a library management post. Stay tuned!
Casey
Oh, I’ve never thought of this!
Wow, thanks for the great tip, seriously.
+APERTURE ROCKS!
This is indeed a great tip! You’re going to have to blog more often because you actually have something substantial to say…