

For experience, you will gain this from seeing thousands of lighting scenarios and by grading tons of clips. Then you can trust that to make the subjective decision to know when it’s right. What do I mean by this though? Judgment, meaning, when you look at the image, does it feel right? That’s why having a calibrated monitor is so important because it gives you that faith that the image is being displayed truthfully. That makes your decision when the white balance is correct.

Now there’s not really anything in this frame that would be perfectly white, so how would you know when you have the right white balance? I get asked this question all the time and the answer is three parts, experience, judgment, and story.

Now this isn’t necessarily a better image, but it would be a little more balanced by definition.
