White Balance; Automatic White Balance - Minolta Dimage X Instruction Manual

R
ECORDING MODE

White balance

White balance is the camera's ability to make different types of lighting appear neutral.
The effect is similar to selecting daylight or tungsten film, or using color compensating
filters in conventional photography.
One automatic and four preset white-balance setting
are available. When one of the preset white-balance
settings is selected, an icon will be displayed on the
LCD monitor to indicate the active white-balance set-
ting. White balance is set in the basic section of the
recording-mode menu (p. 28).

Automatic white balance

The automatic white balance compensates for the color temperature of a scene. In
most cases, the auto setting will balance the ambient light and create beautiful images,
even under mixed-lighting conditions. When the built-in flash is used, the white balance
is set for the color temperature of the flash.
Shooting tips
White balance cannot correct high-energy vapor lighting: sodium-vapor (yellow highway lights),
or mercury vapor. For portraits under these lighting conditions, the flash can be used to over-
power the ambient light. With landscapes containing these types of lights, set the white balance
to the preset daylight setting.
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Preset white balance
Preset white-balance settings must be set before the image is taken. Once set, the
effect is immediately visible on the monitor.
To record the ambient light, set the flash mode to flash cancel (p. 26). The built-in flash
can be used with preset white-balance, but will create a pinkish or blueish cast with the
fluorescent and tungsten settings. The flash is daylight balanced and will produce good
results with the daylight and cloudy settings.
Daylight - for outdoor and sunlit subjects.
Cloudy - for overcast outdoor scenes.
Tungsten - for incandescent lighting: household filament light bulbs.
Fluorescent - for fluorescent lighting: office ceiling lights.
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