White Balance is today's topic and can be a very quick fix to improve your photos.

5. Learn to Use your White Balance Settings

White balance can really help you to capture colours more accurately, giving a truer reading of what you see, rather than leeving your camera on auto and letting the camera decide.

Different types of light have different characteristics, so if you don’t adjust the white balance on your camera, the colours in your photography may take on a slightly blue, orange or green hue or "temperature" depending on what you are photographing.

Whilst of course your white balance can be fixed in post processing, it can become quite time consuming if you have taken hundreds of photos and you have to alter every one of them, so as always, if you can get it right when you take the photo this is always the best bet. 

The general standard white balance settings you’ll find on your camera will include Automatic White Balance, Daylight, Cloudy, Flash, Shade, Fluorescent and Tungsten, you will also be able to set your own on some higher spec cameras. They are there because they let the camera know what colour balance situation you are taking photos in and help it get the correct colour for your image - so try using them and see the difference it makes.

Each of the white balance settings is symbolised by a different icon, so if you’re not sure which is which you can check your camera’s manual. Automatic white balance works alright in some situations, but it’s generally best to change the setting according to the type of light you are shooting in.

Always remember to check your white balance setting when moving to a new lighting situation though.