Which White Balance Setting to Use: Quick Answer
- Most scenes: Auto (AWB). Modern cameras handle daylight, shade and flash well, and RAW lets you fix the rest.
- Direct sun: Daylight, about 5,200–5,500K.
- Indoor bulbs: Tungsten, about 3,200K.
- Mixed or tricky light: Custom WB from a gray card, or a Kelvin value set by eye.
- Sunsets and candlelight: Daylight or Cloudy, so the camera does not neutralize the warm light you want.
If you shoot RAW, the setting only changes the starting point. You can change white balance later without quality loss.
What Is White Balance?
White balance is a color correction process that ensures white objects appear white under any type of lighting. Different light sources emit different color temperatures, measured in Kelvin (K). A candle at 1,800K casts a warm orange glow, daylight at 5,500K appears neutral, and overcast sky at 6,500K has a cool blue cast.
Your camera's white balance setting compensates for these color shifts. When set to "Daylight" (5,500K), the camera assumes daylight and adjusts colors accordingly. When set to "Tungsten" (3,200K), it adds blue to counteract the warm yellow of indoor bulbs. The goal is always the same: make colors look natural regardless of the light source.
In practice, white balance affects the overall color cast of your entire photo. Get it wrong, and skin tones look sickly yellow under tungsten lights or unnaturally blue in shade. Get it right, and colors feel natural and true to life.
Why RAW Makes White Balance Adjustable
This is one of the most important differences between RAW and JPEG:
- RAW files store white balance as metadata (a set of color multiplier values). The sensor data itself is unmodified. You can change white balance during conversion without any quality penalty — the RAW processor simply applies different multipliers to the same raw data.
- JPEG files have white balance permanently baked into the pixel values. The camera applied its white balance correction, then compressed the result. You can make minor adjustments in a photo editor, but significant changes cause color shifts, posterization, and banding. Why 8-bit files band so easily is explained in 8-bit vs 16-bit images.
This is why photographers shoot RAW: if you set the wrong white balance on your camera (or leave it on Auto and the camera guesses wrong), you can fix it perfectly during conversion. With JPEG, you are stuck with whatever the camera chose.
White Balance Presets and Kelvin Values
Every camera includes standard white balance presets. Here is what they mean in terms of color temperature:
| Preset | Kelvin (K) | Light Source | Effect on Image |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tungsten | 3,200K | Indoor incandescent bulbs | Adds blue to counteract orange |
| Fluorescent | 4,000K | Office/store lighting | Adds magenta to counter green tint |
| Daylight | 5,500K | Direct sunlight, midday | Neutral (baseline) |
| Flash | 5,500K | Camera flash/strobe | Similar to daylight |
| Cloudy | 6,500K | Overcast sky | Adds warmth to counter blue |
| Shade | 7,500K | Open shade, north-facing window | Adds more warmth |
Higher Kelvin values add warmth (amber/yellow tones). Lower values add coolness (blue tones). The camera's job is to pick the right Kelvin value so that the color shifts introduced by the light source are neutralized.
Camera WB vs Auto WB in Conversion
When converting RAW files to JPG, you have three main white balance options:
Camera White Balance (Recommended Default)
Uses the white balance setting you chose when taking the photo. If you set your camera to "Daylight" or "Cloudy" or a custom Kelvin value, this option applies exactly that setting. Our converter always uses camera white balance (dcraw -w) because it reproduces the photographer's intent — the colors you saw in the viewfinder or on the LCD. For the full steps in Preview, Photoshop or Canon DPP, see how to convert CR2 to JPG.
Auto White Balance
The conversion software analyzes the image data and calculates a white balance that it thinks is correct. This can work well when the camera's Auto WB made a poor choice, but it can also produce unexpected results. Auto WB (dcraw -a) is a good fallback when camera WB produces obviously wrong colors. CleverUtils does not offer it; use a RAW editor such as Lightroom, Camera Raw or RawTherapee.
No White Balance (As-Shot Sensor Data)
Applies no white balance correction at all. The result often has a strong green tint because most camera sensors use a Bayer filter with twice as many green pixels as red or blue. In dcraw this is -r 1 1 1 1 (all channel multipliers set to 1). It is mainly useful for technical analysis of the raw sensor data, not for normal photo output.
Recommendation: Start with camera white balance. If the colors look wrong (too warm, too cool, or have an unusual tint), try auto white balance. Only use "no WB" if you are analyzing sensor data or want the raw, uncorrected output.
Common White Balance Scenarios
Golden Hour and Sunset Photography
During golden hour, the warm light is the subject of the photo. Camera WB preserves this warmth beautifully. Auto WB may try to "correct" the warm tones and produce a cooler, less atmospheric result. Use camera WB to keep the golden warmth.
Indoor Mixed Lighting
Rooms lit by both daylight (windows) and tungsten (lamps) create conflicting color temperatures that confuse cameras. If the camera chose tungsten WB, the window light will look blue. If it chose daylight, the lamp areas will look orange. Try auto WB for a compromise, or accept that mixed lighting always involves trade-offs.
Snow and Winter Scenes
Cameras often make snow look blue because Auto WB overcompensates for the high Kelvin value of shade and overcast conditions. If your camera WB was set to Cloudy or Shade, it should look correct. If Auto WB made the snow blue, switch to camera WB.
Fluorescent Office Lighting
Fluorescent lights produce a greenish color cast that is one of the hardest for cameras to handle. Camera Auto WB often does a reasonable job here. If you see a green tint, try auto WB during conversion, which can sometimes correct the green cast better than the camera's original setting.
Studio Flash Photography
Studio strobes produce consistent 5,500K light. If your camera was set to Flash or Daylight, camera WB will be accurate. This is one scenario where white balance is rarely a problem — camera WB works perfectly.
Best Practice for RAW White Balance
- Always start with camera WB — it preserves what you intended when shooting.
- Check skin tones first — skin is the most sensitive indicator of incorrect white balance. If skin looks natural, the WB is good.
- Try auto WB only if camera WB fails — obvious color casts, mixed lighting problems, or forgotten wrong settings.
- For creative intent, keep camera WB — warm sunset glow, cool blue-hour mood, and candlelight ambiance are all intentional.
How to Fix White Balance in Lightroom and Camera Raw
- Open the photo in the Develop module (Lightroom Classic) or in Camera Raw.
- In the Basic panel, open the White Balance menu: As Shot, Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Shade, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Flash or Custom. The full preset list appears for RAW files; JPEGs show only As Shot, Auto and Custom.
- Or pick the White Balance Selector eyedropper (shortcut W in Lightroom Classic) and click something that should be neutral gray or white.
- Fine-tune with Temp (blue to yellow) and Tint (green to magenta).
To set a custom white balance in the camera, photograph a gray card under the scene light, then select that frame in the camera’s Custom WB menu.