Nikon D5100 Experience Manual

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Nikon D5100 Experience Manual Manual pdf 54 page image

Nikon D5100 Experience53White BalanceWhite Balance (WB) is for ensuring that white objects appear as white under any lighting. Oureyes and mind correct what we see so that white always looks white to us. But to the camera,white under fluorescent lighting appears greenish and under incandescent lighting appearsorange or reddish. Generally, AUTO White Balance (AWB) does an excellent job of setting theproper white balance. And if you are shooting RAW files, you can always use AWB and setyour white balance in post-processing. But if you are shooting JPEG files you may wish to setthe white balance to match the actual lighting conditions, especially if you are working in theevening, at sunset, or indoors without a flash. Remember that the Cloudy setting is also used forevening and sunset, to make them appear warm and reddish like they naturally appear. Indoors,set the WB to Incandescent for standard incandescent bulbs, Fluorescent for fluorescent lighting,or set a custom White Balance using Preset Manual (PRE) for better precision or for mixedlighting (see below).Set the White Balance using the i Button and Information Display screen. You can also assignthe Function (Fn) Button to set white balance in conjunction with the Command Dial as youview the setting on the Information Display. To set a more precise Fluorescent WB, access theWB options in the Shooting Menu (see Figure 34). You may wish to add this to My Menu forquick access. The type and color temperatures of fluorescent bulbs are typically printed on thebulbs, near one of the ends. The D5100’s fluorescent, other bulb types, and standard WB optionsand temperatures (in Kelvin) are:Sodium vapor lamps: 2,700KIncandescent: 3,000KWarm-white fluorescent: 3,000KWhite fluorescent: 3,700KCool-white fluorescent: 4,200KDay white fluorescent: 5,000KDaylight fluorescent: 6,500KHigh temperature mercury-vapor: 7,200KDirect sunlight: 5,200KFlash: 5,400KCloudy (evening, sunset): 6,000KShade: 8,000K