Nikon D5100 Experience - White Balance

Nikon D5100 Experience
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White Balance
White Balance (WB) is for ensuring that white objects appear as white under any lighting. Our
eyes and mind correct what we see so that white always looks white to us. But to the camera,
white under fluorescent lighting appears greenish and under incandescent lighting appears
orange or reddish. Generally, AUTO White Balance (AWB) does an excellent job of setting the
proper white balance. And if you are shooting RAW files, you can always use AWB and set
your white balance in post-processing. But if you are shooting JPEG files you may wish to set
the white balance to match the actual lighting conditions, especially if you are working in the
evening, at sunset, or indoors without a flash. Remember that the Cloudy setting is also used for
evening and sunset, to make them appear warm and reddish like they naturally appear. Indoors,
set the WB to Incandescent for standard incandescent bulbs, Fluorescent for fluorescent lighting,
or set a custom White Balance using Preset Manual (PRE) for better precision or for mixed
lighting (see below).
Set the White Balance using the i Button and Information Display screen. You can also assign
the Function (Fn) Button to set white balance in conjunction with the Command Dial as you
view the setting on the Information Display. To set a more precise Fluorescent WB, access the
WB options in the Shooting Menu (see Figure 34). You may wish to add this to My Menu for
quick access. The type and color temperatures of fluorescent bulbs are typically printed on the
bulbs, near one of the ends. The D5100’s fluorescent, other bulb types, and standard WB options
and temperatures (in Kelvin) are:
Sodium vapor lamps: 2,700K
Incandescent: 3,000K
Warm-white fluorescent: 3,000K
White fluorescent: 3,700K
Cool-white fluorescent: 4,200K
Day white fluorescent: 5,000K
Daylight fluorescent: 6,500K
High temperature mercury-vapor: 7,200K
Direct sunlight: 5,200K
Flash: 5,400K
Cloudy (evening, sunset): 6,000K
Shade: 8,000K