Adjusting what we see as white

White Great Egret shot at the color setting

for Tungsten light bulbs I set the night before.

Thank goodness for digital cameras with adjustable White Balance settings.

I won't buy a serious camera without it, because I shoot under a variety of light sources, only some of which I have control over. Nine years ago, I had to wait six months to get my Sony F707, then the only Prosumer camera which had that feature.

Unfortunately, not many digital cameras have manual White Balance, and most automatic White Balance features on digital cameras (including expensive ones) don't work well under all lights. Canon cameras, for instance, have notoriously bad White Balance under tungsten lights (or else they believe consumers want to render light bulb light as reddish, which does look romantic). You still have to check feature lists and read camera reviews carefully.

My expensive Nikon D300 allows me to make color balance adjustments for a variety of light sources, so I can dial the exact color in degrees Kelvin for almost any kind of a source (halogen, fluorescent or tungsten bulb, lamp, candle or sunlight under differing circumstances), but it's still iffy with mixed light sources — like daylight plus the dreaded fluorescent and other light source combinations, and its automatic white balance fares poorly (goes reddish) with ordinary light bulbs.

Mixed lighting — like in galleries with big windows and light bulbs — can vary by the inch from warm to cool, and homes with mixed lighting can be a challenge to adjust to. Sometimes I can set the camera before I shoot. Sometimes, because I shoot Raw, I can change the color in Photoshop later. Sometimes I can't do either.

Mixing light sources is a hassle. If you are shooting "indoor" film or digital with indoor lights, and there is an unblocked window letting in outside light (which is probably brighter than anything indoors) so it can shine on or reflect in your art, some or all of your art may be rendered blue instead of the color you expect. Not a major problem with digital (if you know how to use masking in an image manipulation program or how to tune that one color out), but tough luck on film.

If you shoot art inside or near color objects, those objects' color(s) can reflect in the art. I love my Parrot Green (It feels warm in winter and cool in summer.) living room, but I know better than to photograph art there, because when I did, the green walls turned it a sickly shade. Our brains adjust. Cameras and film don't.

Colored walls and ceilings are prime suspects for color shifts, but if you have a big red couch where it can reflect in your art, it can make your art pink. Even outside, a big green tree, a bright yellow garage or red bricks can alter color subtly or substantially. The blue paint on the ceiling of your porch can ruin warm hues.