Exercise 3 : Judging colour temperature 1

"In most photography there is no need to be exact about colour temperature; it is enough to know when the light is not white, if only by a little, or by a lot.  For this exercise chose a subject that can be moved around and is not of a strong colour, also a clear sunny day is required.  Take three photographs, one in full sun during the middle of the day, next move the subject into the shade, taking a second picture, finally wait until the sun is close to the horizon for the last image.  Make sure the camera's white balance is set to daylight not automatic".

I used my dog Millie as the subject, she is predominately grey in colour, so perfect for the exercise.

All the images were taken at ISO400 with an aperture of f11, the shutter speeds varied as follows.  Midday sun was 1/250th sec, midday shade, 1/20th sec and the photograph taken at sunset 1/60th sec.  The photograph taken at sunset has the most obvious colour cast, my dogs coat has an orange tint to it, similar to the autumn colour of the leaves on the grass.  This was not so noticeable when I took the photograph, however I was aware of a warmth to everything.  As expected the midday sun image is closest to the true colour of my dogs coat, when I put Millie in an area of shade I could see that the overall image was going to come out with a blueish tint, giving the impression of being cold.

Judging colour temperature 2.

Having looked at the previous images, I would make changes to both the shade and sunset photographs.  This may be easier to say because I know how my dog should look.  A different subject, for example something colouful might have been ok with a setting sun, but most things would look wrong when photographed in the drab, cold and blueish light of shade.

"For part 2 take a similar subject to the last one, take the same three kinds of picture, for each one vary the camera's white balance setting.  In sun select daylight then shade and finally auto white balance, the same with the subject moved to a shady position and lastly at sunset.  Compare the three versions for each, what difference can be seen, which is the best white balance for each of the lighting conditions?"

Set 1 midday sun.

Set 2 midday shade.

Set 3 sunset.

Again I have the advantage of being able to look at Millie while judging the images.  In set 1 daylight WB is closest, shade WB for set 2 and auto WB in set 3.  Without being able to see the subject first hand, two photographs from each set are acceptable, I guess this shows how accurate the camera's white balance settings are and for most situations auto WB could be used.