Photography is all about lighting and it's important to learn what flattering light is. Once you do, you will find that the color temperature of that light makes a huge difference in the over all mood of that image. I can't tell you how many potentially great images that I see that were taken outside on a sunny day and the auto white balance makes everything blue, wrecking the image. Check out the video below where Jay P Morgan shows us how to set the white balance manually on a 5D Mark II. All you need is a White Balance Disc or a nifty White Balance Lens Cap.
Related Articles
For me the whitebalance is a must to check and use correctly, and this video was awesome, not because of the white-balance part of it, but for genius use of the air-canon in the pool, really loved that idea ! :D
I shoot in raw 100% of the time so I don't usually use the custom WB. Although sometimes if the shoot is very casual or there are no models present I will do it to enjoy taking photographs. More than anything his shots were just amazing. I wonder what it would be like to be part of that family :D.
WB is clutch for those of us who actually shoot jpeg...yep, guilty as charged
Why on earth anyone would go to all that effort and not shoot raw is beyond me.
Cool video even tho I knew the whitebalance-thingy already. Awesome air-cannon... =P
@Lee - shoot jpeg? Really? Shame on you... ;-)
Personally I like the cooler spectra.. Like this - http://img814.imageshack.us/img814/2503/img0079edit3.jpg
Dammit...no edit.. Last comment was @Patrick, not Lee.. Sry! =)
Kelvin isn't measured in degrees! eh, just being picky.
@ Wesley, No One likes a Pedant. 8-0 When I, and many pros were going to school degrees kelvin was the proper way to speak of color temperature. In the film days people learned photography through working as an assistant, and learned degrees kelvin from their mentor (who learned degrees kelvin in their college classes).
BTW the mired and the nanometer are two other ways to express color for photography.
I always check the white balance setting. Get it right and you'll get great shots:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/adrian0011/5048987093/in/photostream
I love my expo disc. I use it on every shoot and really like perfect color i get from it. :)