Best white balance setting for outdoor photography

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White balance is one of those settings that you can leave the camera to figure out on its own, and never really worry about it.

And indeed, that's what many photographers end up doing.

If you never change it and you're happy with the kind of results you get, you may wonder why you even need to adjust it at all. It pays to understand what options you have at your disposal, however, particularly if you ever shoot under artificial lighting.

Choosing the right white balance setting is particularly important when shooting JPEGs.

If you shoot in RAW format, you have the option to change the white balance setting without degrading image quality. Even so, it usually pays to get the color right in camera when you can. 

First, before we examine what options you have, let's quickly run over what white balance is.

What is white balance?

Let's say you're standing outside on an overcast day, and you're looking at an object you consider to be white.

Now you take that object inside and it still looks white to you,

how to understand white balance in photography

what is white balance in photography