Universal temperature Which white balance setting should I employ for everyday use?

QThis is a bit like asking which set of clothes is going to be best for every day of the year! There is no simple answer. The closest you’ll get to an everyday setting is to put it on Auto White Balance: the camera will do a decent job of setting the correct temperature for the scene. It’s a perfectly reasonable option, and one that many people use.

If I am shooting outdoors in normal conditions then as a general rule I now use Daylight, but of course this isn’t always the right option – and when shooting indoors under artificial lights, it is definitely wrong.

The way I tend to work it out now is simply to switch on Live View and scroll through the different white balance settings until I find the one that matches the scene closely enough. It’s an easy and visual way to make the choice. Of course, I might even want to choose a setting that changes the scene a bit. For example, if I am shooting a sunset and want to warm it up a little bit then I can select Cloudy or Shade.

If you shoot raw-format files, white balance can be tweaked in post-processing, but it’s still best to try and select the correct temperature at the taking stage because it will save you time.

Having said all this, I guess my answer is that Auto is probably best to use if you really don’t want to have to worry about it and are happy to tweak it when you process your raw files. However, if you shoot in JPEG or are simply a stickler for getting things as right as possible in-camera, then use your Live View function.