Photo How To

White balance can make or break a photo because this important attribute enables you to imbue a scene with a variety of feelings and moods. Do things right and you'll have broad control over a variety of appealing effects. The problem is that an incorrect approach may result in photos that appear unrealistic or totally fake.

Today's primer comes from the folks at Park Cameras, one of the leading photo retailers in the UK. In barely 11-minutes you'll learn how to use Lightroom to overcome minor difficulties, whether you want things looking natural or your goal is to add a unique element to a shot.

Gareth Evans is a versatile photographer and a very enthusiastic educator. In this episode he walks you through several straightforward Lightroom techniques for manipulating white balance with confidence so you can use it as a primary color-grading method for every image you edit. He makes his tips easy to understand by including photos to illustrate the workflow involved.

Evans' first image is a cute outdoor portrait of a dog in the forest. He's working with a Raw file for maximum flexibility and it's important to note that his camera was set to Auto white balance. The original photo look pretty good, but Evans is dissatisfied by the slight magenta cast.

He starts by explaining how to "eyeball" the shot and use Lightroom's manual adjustments to balance out the colors. With this approach he simply drops Tint toward the greens and doing so is pretty effective. But there are slightly more involved methods that can enhance photos in a more precise manner.

The first technique involves changing the white balance profile, and you'll see how easy it to select a custom option. You can use Lightroom's Eyedropper tool to select a neutral tone within the frame and proceed by following Evans' simple instructions. He says that selecting an area that's white or gray tends to work best and illustrates how to evaluate the specific value of your chosen spot by looking at the screen.

The video continues quickly so you may want to take a few notes as Evans moves on to other photos that require different techniques for solving white balance issues and achieving exactly the look you envision. We encourage you to visit the popular Park Cameras YouTube channel where you'll discover a variety of other instructional videos for giving your images a big boost.

And be sure to watch a recent tutorial we featured with another post-processing expert who demonstrates how to shoot and edit epic sunrise and sunset photographs using several pro techniques that are easy to master. Proper white balance can be a very big helpfor accomplishing this goal.