Warm cold or otherwise

[SharedMemories]

So I have been reading a lot and learning so much on here but one thing I keep hearing is a picture is warm or cold. I am assuming that warm being a little deeper with colors? And cold being kinda flat no contrast am I on the right track?

 

[jowensphoto]

Warm = orange-y and reddish tones through out photo

Cold= blue tones


Under most circumstances, you don't want a photo to be either. Other times, a slightly warmer or cooler tone can really add to the feel of a photograph.


Edited to add: I remember this by thinking of skin tones. Some people have naturally cool "blue" skin, while others have warm, red undertones.

 

[ph0enix]

What are warm colors?
What are cool colors?

 

[SharedMemories]

Now can warm and cold be controlled when shooting or is it mainly a post processing thing.

 

[ph0enix]

Now can warm and cold be controlled when shooting or is it mainly a post processing thing.

It's best to get it right when shooting. That's what the White Balance setting does.
You should take some test shots setting WB to different values and see what you end up with.

 

[jowensphoto]

Now can warm and cold be controlled when shooting or is it mainly a post processing thing.

It's best to get it right when shooting. That's what the White Balance setting does.

Yep. It's always been to get it as perfect as possible in camera. Photoshop/GIMP/whatever is important, but shouldn't be relied upon.

 

[KmH]

The tones can be controlled during shooting in a number of ways, from which white balance you choose to use, to adding a colored gel to a speedlight.

For outdoor portraits I would often put the subject out in direct sunlight, but under a diffusion panel to create shade. I would put a CTO gel on my speedlight(s) to make the light from them about the same color temperature as tungsten lighting, and then set the camera white balance to Tungsten so the color of the flash of light lopked white to the camera - but the background ambient direct sunlight would have a distinct, cool, blusih cast to it.

It is ironic though, because in the hotter a color temperature is, the bluer it is. Color temperature - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[bazooka]

Generally you can control the white balance but if your not in a studio, I wouldn't waste time getting a perfect custom white balance. Just get close and change it in how you want it in the raw conversion process. If you are shooting raw, the only affect it has is the image you see on the back of the camera. It can be helpful to see this close to correct.

If you shoot jpg, it absolutely matters that you get it how you want it.

 

[SharedMemories]

Thanks so much for the explanations... I will be practicing white balance soon....

 

[TheBiles]

If you shoot RAW (as you should), white balance can be completely controlled in post.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[SharedMemories]

Yes I shoot in raw.