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Creating the perfect photograph isn’t just about lighting and camera settings. A lot happens after the picture is taken as well. Simple changes in Affinity Photo like white balance adjustments can really make a photo pop. But how do you do it?
In total, there are several different ways to adjust the white balance in Affinity Photo:
- Adjust the white balance in the Adjustment tab
- Edit White Levels in the Adjustment tab
- Tweak highlights in Color Balance
- Correct Exposure
The lighting can’t always be perfect every time you go to take a photo. This is where knowing how to edit comes into play. Below you will find a quick guide for adjusting white balance in Affinity Photo.
Changing the White Balance in Affinity Photo
When taking photos, the type of lighting can alter how the whites and other colors appear. Adjusting the white balance in Affinity Photo can easily remedy the situation, but you need to know how to do it.
In simple terms, white balance is how warm or cool the overall colors in an image appear. These can be adjusted using various methods and tools within Affinity Photo
1. Using Affinity Photo Personas
After opening your image in Affinity Photo, you’re going to want to make sure you are using the correct Persona for your file type. Affinity photo is divided into five different sections (Personas):
- Photo
- Liquify
- Develop
- Tone Mapping
- Export
Each one of these provides different ways of working within Affinity Photo and can be found on the upper lefthand side of the screen just below the File menu. If you are working with a JPG file, switch to the Photo Persona. RAW files should be edited in the Develop Persona.
2. Editing White Balance with the Adjustment Tab
When in the Photo Persona, you should see a panel on the right-hand side with several different tabs. With your photo file open, click into the “Adjustment” tab and look for “White Balance.”
Once you click this, a window will pop up with two slider controls: one for white balance and one for tint. Click on the “Picker” button and select an area on your photo that should be a neutral color. This will make some adjustments to your photo, getting you the initial settings to work with.
You may still need to make some adjustments to the photo to get the exact look you’re going for. If the photo appears too warm or yellow, move the white balance slider to the left to add in more blue tones. If the photo is too cool or blue, move the slider to the right to warm it up.
Adjusting White Balance with Levels
Levels are another option that can be found in the Adjustment tab. However, this is best used for situations when whites appear either too dark or washed out.
First, click on “Levels” in the Adjustment tab. A window will pop up with a color graph and a few sliders. Moving these sliders will change the darkness and lightness of whites and blacks in the photo.
3. Adjusting Whites with Color Balance
If the whites in your photo still feel off, you may need to make some changes to the color balance. To do this, find “Color Balance” in the Adjustment tab.
In the Tonal Range dropdown box select “Highlights.” This will make sure that the color balance changes are only affecting the highlights in the photo.
Once again, if your whites seem too warm or dingy, move the Yellow/Blue slider to the right to cool them down. Move the slider in the opposite direction to warm things up.
4. How To Fix Overexposed Photos
Overexposure of an image is another reason whites and colors can seem off. To fix this, upload a RAW image and click on the Develop Persona.
In the panel on the right-hand side, click the tab that says “Basic.” Here you should see a slider for exposure. If the photo is overexposed, drag the slider to the left to lower exposure. If it is underexposed, drag the slider to the right.
You may still need to make some adjustments to brightness or color balance after correcting exposure, but this should help immensely.
Final Thoughts
There are many things that we can always be in control of when taking photos. Light, unfortunately, is one of those things. Luckily, there are ways to work around this in post-production.
Hopefully, this guide helped you understand how to adjust the white balance in Affinity Photo so that you can create beautiful and eye-catching photos.
