Sometimes getting the right color balance is easy with the right camera settings. When I opened this image in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) I didn’t need to change a thing. After the bride’s portrait, this was a relief.

The key to great, natural looking color in a portrait is to get the color balance right. You do this by matching the “white balance” setting on the camera to the “color temperature” of the light.

Light sources have different color temperatures which are measured in degrees Kelvin (K) with low numbers indicating warm (yellow amber) light and high numbers indicating cool (bluish) light. A tungsten light bulb gives off very warm light with color temperatures around 2800 to 3200K. Middle of the day sunlight is neutral with a color temperature around 5500K. A shoe mounted camera flash can be a bit cool with a color temperature around 6000K. Evening light after sunset is very cool with color temperatures from 7000 to 10,000K or higher.

Most cameras have little pictograms for white balance settings to indicate the color temperature of the light, like a light bulb for tungsten lights, the sun for daylight and other neutral light sources, and a lightning bolt for electronic flash. To get great color and natural looking (neutral) skin tones, just choose the pictogram to match your light source.

The above photo was taken with a flash and I was close enough to the subject that the flash was the primary light source. So I set the white balance on the camera for flash and everything came out just great.  A quick 20 minutes of touch up with Photoshop and this photo was ready to go.

There are exceptions. If you are doing portraits at sunset and you want your subject’s skin to show the nice, warm glow of the sun, you don’t want to set a warm white balance setting to match the light or your camera will “neutralize” the warm glow by eliminating it. Set the white balance to daylight (the sun pictogram) and your camera will capture the nice warm glow.

Photo Data: Canon 5D Mark III, Canon EF24-105mm f/4L lens at 47 mm. Canon 550EX flash set to ETTL auto exposure. 1/60 sec, f/8, ISO 400.

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To learn more about flash, using the light, working with the color temperature of the light, and portrait photography, read Digital Photography Exposure for Dummies. It has excellent reviews and a five star rating at Amazon. Learn all about it here and order it from Amazon.com.