White balance
Simulator
AI generated demo imageYour photo stays on your device. This page opens it in your browser and works on it there.
Scenarios
How the two settings interact
Every light has a colour, measured in kelvin. Your camera's white balance setting tells it which colour to cancel out. The simulator above lets you set each one separately and see what happens when they agree, and when they don't.
The light has a temperature
Low kelvin is warm and orange: candles, tungsten bulbs, sunset. High kelvin is cool and blue: overcast sky, shade, blue hour. Midday sun sits around 5500 K.
The camera setting cancels it
Setting the camera to a kelvin value says "the light here is this colour, remove it." When the setting matches the light, whites come out white.
Mismatches work in reverse
Set the camera higher than the light and the picture turns warmer. Set it lower and the picture turns cooler. That's why 10,000 K at sunset gives an intensely orange frame.