Lighting Design Glossary

White Balance

(Term of photography)

White balance is a technical method to adapt digital cameras and video equimpent to the color temperature of the dominant light sources in the scene. This is done by adjusting the weighting of the output channels of the image sensor (usually RGB), so that a white surface will again appear white in the resulting picture for a given lighting situation.

The human eye performs its chromatic adaptation in a similar way, by weighting the output of its color sensitive retina cells.

In film based photography, there are different types of films for daylight and indoor photography, with varying spectral sensitivity, to solve the same problem. Alternatively, color filters in front of the lens may prevent tinted pictures.