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A couple of posts ago I mentioned setting a Custom White Balance in your digital camera. This image is subtle but gives you and idea of how the white balance settings affect the colors in your photos.

The top two photos are using the AWB (automatic white balance) setting which is the default setting for most cameras. The coffee can is sitting in our dining room and is lit by natural light from our front bay window.

Our walls and carpet are not gray and the coffee can looks darker than it really is. The top left photo was taken with a polarizer in place but, it was not turned to remove any reflections. In the top right photo the polarizer was rotated until most of the reflections disappeared.

In the full size photos it is much easier to see how the polarizer affected the photos. In these smaller images you can see the change by noticing how much easier it is to read the words Cafe and Coffee. You can also see the horizontal lines a bit easier behind the brand name.

The bottom two photos are what this article is really about. Before taking the third photo (bottom left) I leaned a piece of white paper against the can and “set” the custom white balance. No other changes were made inside the camera or out. You can see the carpet and walls have changed to cream and light brown colors. These are the correct colors we should see in the photo. Also, the coffee can is a richer red - again just as it should be.

In the final photo (bottom right), I increased color saturation. My camera gives me a couple if different ways of doing that but, for this photo I selected the “vivid” option. This really pumped up the reds and greens and I think the can looks more realistic. I’ve helped the camera see what my eyes see.

If you focus on the top left and the bottom right photos then you can see how dramatic these changes really were. The top left photo is what you get when you let the camera do all the work. The bottom rght is what you get with just a couple of small changes - white balance and saturation.