Instruction manual

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when compared to outdoor light, ordinary light bulbs appear more yellow,
candlelight appears redder, and fluorescent lights appear greener.
If your camera is balanced for one kind of light source (e.g., daylight) and you
photograph a scene illuminated by tungsten light, the photo won’t reflect the true
colors in the scene. Fortunately your camera has a way to adjust for these
different light sources. The white balance setting on your camera allows you to
specify the color temperature of the scene.
In many cases, your camera will automatically adjust; however, it often
guesses wrong and gets the improper white balance. So, if your whites are not
white, you will have to make the setting yourself.
Typical White Balance Settings
In the AUTO mode the camera makes its best guess for each shot. Even
though it may or may not work well for normal photos, AUTO almost always works
great for under unusual mixed artificial lighting without flash. AUTO mode works
well with flash, both indoors and outdoors. Usually the photos will still be fairly
blue in shade and pleasantly warm indoors at night. When the flash is on most
cameras automatically switch to flash white balance.
Tungsten (the camera displays the symbol of a light bulb, and is also called
"indoor") is very, very blue most of the time except indoors at night, for which it
looks normal. "Tungsten" is the name of the metal out of which the bulb's filament
is made. Even indoors many people prefer the warmer AUTO setting.
Daylight (symbol of a sun) is bluish normal. Compare this setting to “cloudy”
and go with the one you prefer.
Cloudy (symbol of a cloud) is a little warmer than the daylight setting. If you
prefer photos on the warmer side, use this for most photos outdoors in direct
sunlight.
Flash (symbol of a lighting bolt) is almost identical to “cloudy” but sometimes
redder, depending on the camera. Settings are normally optimized for the little
on-camera flashes (which tend to be blue), so this setting tends to be warm to
compensate.
Shade (symbol of a house casting a shadow) is very orange. This is perfect
for shooting in shade, since shade is so blue. It's also for shooting when you are
under a cloud on a partly cloudy day, or for shooting in backlight, again since the
subject is lit more by the blue sky instead of the direct sunlight.
Fluorescent (symbol of a long rectangle or fluorescent tube) is used if your
photos are too green or under fluorescent, mercury, HMI or metal halide lights
(street lights). It will make other things look a bit purplish. With Nikons the fine-
tuning adjustment (+-3) is much stronger in this setting and adjusts from fairly
warm to fairly cool; because of this you may not be able to get the exact color you
want under Fluorescent lighting, in which case try the AUTO setting.
Fine Tuning (+3 to -3) allows you to get the exact amount of coolness or
warmth: + is cooler and - is warmer. Nikons allow you to adjust this and
remembers your preference for every setting.
Manual, Custom or Preset (sometimes a symbol with a dot and two triangles)
allows you to point the camera at something you want to be neutral and it makes it
that way. Read the manual to your camera for specifics.
Remember, look at your subject on the color LCD and scroll through the
settings until you get the best photo!