White Balance

Well, this is something I have to remember the next time I shoot anything, especially indoors -- set the proper white balance setting! Now, it sounds like a rather easy thing to do. After all, there are preset options for sunny skies, cloudy days, shades, incandescent lights, fluorescent lights, etc. but indoors, guessing what type of light bulbs are being used can be difficult. There could be a mix of incandescent and fluorescent light bulbs in use at the same time and even the bulbs could be coloured. I'm trying to stay away from guessing so if your camera has a custom "PRE" white balance option like the D80 has, that's what I'd use.

On the D80, I get to the PRE option by holding on the WB button and using the rear dialer to change the WB options until it reads "PRE" on the LCD.

To set the right white balance for the current light condition:

• Hold the WB button until "PRE" on the LCD starts blinking
• Hold a white piece of paper (I used tissue paper) in front of the lens and focus on it in the centre of the viewfinder.
• Depress and release the shutter button to take a shot of the tissue paper.
• The LCD should then read "good".
  

Leave the white balance setting at the "PRE" option and start shooting. If you move to an area of the house where the lighting changes, repeat the steps above to reset the white balance.

If you need to use flash, repeat those same steps above to set the proper white balance with flash. If you did not reset the white balance with flash but are using flash, the picture will turn out very cold blue.