I saw a YouTube video a couple days ago that made me stop and think about white balance. This is the selection on your camera that photographers generally set to Auto and the camera works it out for them. Results are generally good. That’s where I’ve left mine for years.
But the photographer in the video said, “This is what I do with my white balance. You may not agree with me, but let me explain why I chose this.”
His white balance is set to daylight. Here’s the video in case you want to watch it. His pictures have a distinctive look, and he explains how using the Daylight setting works for him. https://youtu.be/eQPPa_8Z13o?si=9yhhOhNQ3F2YfdSL
I was intrigued enough to switch from Auto to Daylight. I shoot in RAW these days, so I could always tweak the colors if they weren’t exactly right. I already do it in some photos for other reasons. Then I went out after sunset (when the horrible heat of the day was finally easing!) and took some pics. I was using the Sony 18-135mm lens.
I like this photo quite a lot, even though I took it from the deck on the lake quite some distance from the subject, which was the cat. Because I had to crop in so small to get rid of extraneous crap, I then had to upscale it in Gigapixel. The result was okay. Not my best photo, but it was the colors I was taken by. Also, I had the bright idea of adding the glow effect to the yard light stuck in the planter and the cat’s eyes, to brighten them up. Everything was in shadow, and that’s why the photo looks the way it does. If I’d set white balance to Auto, it would probably have looked different.
This is the other photo I took that evening. I had to lean way over the deck railing to get the entire reflection of that palm tree. It was blue hour, and the colors were already fading as the sun had already set. If my white balance had been set to Auto, would the camera have adjusted the colors away from blue hour and toward something more vibrant? I don’t know, but next time, I’m going to take a picture for each individual setting and compare them. This is pretty much what I saw that evening, though.
I took these last pictures three days ago, so white balance was on Auto. I was returning home early in the morning when this female squirrel jumped up on the boardwalk railing. I turned on the camera and took a couple of pictures. One look at her abdomen told me there were babies close by.
That same morning, I took a picture of the path I follow to the small lake, woods on one side, narrow stream on the other.
Finally, take a look at the following two pictures and tell me which one you prefer and why. I couldn’t decide which crop I liked better, so I did it both ways. A mockingbird is singing to the morning sun.
I really liked the shapes the dead branches made and the way they frame the bird.
See you next time.
Theo Fenraven 
Which of the two I like best depends on why I’m looking. The 2nd shows the bird best. The 1st has that wonderful snake of the dead limb either serenading with the bird or approaching it hungrily.
I saw the same thing, which is why I like both crops. I literally couldn’t make up my mind, because each crop highlights something different. 🙂 If I had to choose, I’d go with the wider crop, with that one somehow threatening dead branch striking at the tiny bird.
As always, I love the pictures you shared. All the technical photo stuff is lost on me, but I do enjoy seeing the results.
I include some of the technical stuff for the photographers who stop by, but it’s not necessary to understand it to enjoy a picture. That’s the whole point of photography, right? A picture tells you something, makes you feel something, documents a moment that is there and then gone. Thanks for commenting and being here!
I know that I rarely leave a comment but you can rest assured that I read your posts whenever I get a notification in my inbox. You take fabulous pictures and I always enjoy seeing them. Thank you for sharing!
It’s nice to be appreciated, so thank you! 🙂
first pic is more interesting. Looks like some sort of creature on the left about to eat the bird.
I thought the same thing, because I’ve taken lots of pictures of mockingbirds. They’re cute and friendly and sing a variety of songs. I was willing to sacrifice the closeup on it for the larger crop, because I think that suggests something entirely different and more interesting.