Most of the time, we try to get the light balance right to interpret what we think we saw. We use various tools to accomplish this, like gray cards, white balance lens caps, white balance filters like the ExpoDisc, Spyder cubes, and others. There are also many ways to correct white balance at post-processing, especially easy if the shot was taken in RAW, and just slightly more challenging if taken in JPG.

Lake Erie in Blue

This photo to the left was taken well before sunrise looking west and as you can see, the cloud cover was rather heavy in that direction. In this photo, you can see what the photo turned out like with automatic white balance selected. While the automation tried to cut through the blue cast, it was only partially successful.

Lake Erie in Blue The photo to the right is how the same scene would look with no automation, simulated by locking the white balance to sunny. When we get results like this, we either try to use the tools mentioned at the beginning or we counteract by setting the camera white balance to cloudy, or shade in an effort to render a more natural looking scene.

Lake Erie in Blue So here, back on the left is the same photo again, this time with shade setting for the strongest warming effect. As you can see, this did not fully neutralize the scene. The white balance tools would have come really handy but I had none of them with me that morning. So post-processing would have to come to the rescue.

Lake Erie in Blue But as I was looking at the LCD displaying the first photo of this sequence and then looking around, it did not feel right to fight what was in front of me. Instead, I chose to go in the opposite way and select the incandescent white balance on my camera to magnify what the camera observed. In many ways, that was actually what it felt like looking west, especially coma red to the eastward view of wild warm reds, purples, and oranges.

To finish of, the fifth and final version shows how the scene could look if color balanced in post-production. You make your own choice of what you think works best for you and the next time you're facing a white balance challenge, decide which way you want to go.

Have fun!

PS: Reading Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks, which is about our minds, how they work, and specifically  also about how we perceive color. It does not end with wavelengths, ... but more on that some other day!