Take control of colour

Discover which Canon camera features enable you to get more vivid, or subtle, results

There are a number of different EOS functions that give you control over the way in which colours are rendered in your shots. The one that has by far the biggest impact is white balance.

If this is incorrectly set, the entire colour palette of the image or video you’re shooting will look wrong. We’ve covered white balance (WB) in Digital EOS Essentials, but it’s worth us taking a look again as it’s a key control to get to grips with.

White balance can be used either correctively or creatively. It’s designed to help neutralize colour casts so that colours appear natural. If the camera didn’t have a white balance function, then objects would take on the hue and tint of the light source. For instance, a white wall lit by a warm, yellow household bulb would look yellow in a photo. That same white wall, photographed in cool blue shade would then appear blue. You can leave the camera to try and figure things out for itself, but the Auto white balance setting doesn’t always get things right. Manually setting a preset that matches the light source, or making your own custom white balance setting, can help to correct most colour casts.

You can also use this function creatively by intentionally setting an incorrect white balance to exaggerate a colour cast slightly and enhance the mood. To boost a sunset, for example, you can set one of the presets that is designed to warm up an image taken in cool blue light conditions, such as Cloudy or Shade.