Comment by cubefox

2 years ago

Digital cameras also do automatic white balance (between yellow and blue) to mimic the automatic white balance of our eye/brain. If cameras didn't do white balance, outdoor photos with sunlight during noon would look extremely blueish, or indoor photos with artificial light would look extremely yellowish.

I like this illustration of how strong our natural white balance is:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dress#/media/File%3AWikipe...

During some heavy dust clouds from nearby wildfires, the sky was a deep and unsettling yellow. However, I couldn’t get a picture of it, because the automatic color balance removed the yellow overcast altogether.

  • The same problem occurs with photographing the yellow sky when dust from a Sahara sandstorm (presumably coming across the strait of Gibraltar) blows over Europe every few years. But you can set the white balance manually in the camera.