White balance options on all current Nikon DSLRs (and tips for using them creatively)

jmeyer | Photography Tips | 08/08/2012 03:00am

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Break the rules with White Balance

You can use your Nikon’s White Balance presets creatively to enhance the mood of your pictures

It’s not always necessary to get your White Balance spot on at the time of shooting, and not just because you can tweak colours at the editing stage. Getting the White Balance ‘wrong’ can often actually help your photography. Here are three great White Balance tricks to try…

Shade for sunsets
Sunsets often look less impressive in photographs than you remembered when taking them. Cheating with White Balance can make dusk and dawn look more golden. Set the WB to Shade, or if your camera allows, set a colour temperature of 10,000K.

Cloudy for warmth 
Find a suitable outdoor subject lit with normal daylight on a bright day. Now set the White Balance to Cloudy. This will make the image’s tones warmer, which works particularly well when you’re shooting portraits or architecture.

The moonlit look
Give your landscapes a moonlit look with a blue tone. Set the WB to Tungsten, or set a value of 2500K.

Alternatively, use the Custom White Balance option but rather than using a piece of white paper, use a piece of orange or red paper for your test card.

This will trick your camera into giving you a blue-toned picture. This works well for ghostly Halloween portraits too.

PAGE 1: Infographic of white balance options on all current Nikon DSLRs
PAGE 2: Tips for breaking the rules of white balance
PAGE 3: White balance in mixed lighting