White balance

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Glossary Terms

White Balance is an adjustment in electronic imaging that corrects for the colour balance of the lighting - so that white objects appear white, rather than coloured (for example) yellow when lit by tungsten filament lights, or excessively blue under sunlight.

Most digital cameras have automatic compensation for white balance, and the more advanced allow some manual adjustment - either to fixed settings or balancing on a particular image (e.g. a grey card). The white balance is adjusted by applying different weightings to the red, green and blue (RGB) components of the image coming from the sensor - based on the colour temperature.

Links

• Understanding White Balance tutorial on Cambridge in Colour
• Wikipedia article contains more technical detail