13 - White Balance (Tint)
White balance is important. It is composed of temperature and tint. Tint makes up the other half of white balance.
Usually, tint is subject to less natural deviation than temperature. Midday sunlight should contain little or no tint whilst artificial lighting (older gas vapour bulbs) may cast a slight green tint.
Adjusting the hint results in a less noticeable change than temperature. The danger of this is a hint shift can often be overlooked whilst editing, resulting in a photo that "just looks slightly odd" rather than having any glaring flaw.
Magenta tinted glasses
Tint, as well as a correction tool, can also be used as a creative tool. Adjusting the tint of an image can adjust the feel of an image from a deep, although subtle level.
The rich pink and magenta colours of early dawn or late dusk can be accentuated by pushing tint towards magenta. Magenta can also be argued to give a richer and affluent feel to an image with architecture. Contrastly a landscape shot with lots of green foliage can be further enhanced with a green push.
Photographer Serge Ramelli refers to himself as " Mr Magenta" due to his stylistic preference to push his photos towards magenta over green.
Assignment:
Compose a photo and adjust the tint. Push one image far into green and another far into magenta. Discuss in the comment section how you interpret each result.
Visit Mr Magenta’s website here: https://sergeramelliphotos.com
Quickly review his images, pick your favourite and discuss what tint you see in the image.
Take forward:
Be aware of hint when reviewing photos. Do you notice any magenta or green casts in the image?
Pay particular attention to skin tones.
Would more green and magenta look better in an image?