What White Balance Will Work Best for My Survey?


The white balance option in camera settings controls the camera's ability to handle different lighting conditions. While under ideal conditions, the "Sunny" white balance should always be used, it's important to change this setting to reflect the conditions at the site you're trying to fly. 

Examples of white balance settings

Sunny day with white balance set to Sunny

Cloudy day with white balance set to Cloudy

Sunny day with white balance set to Cloudy

Cloudy day with white balance set to Sunny

Why is it important to get it right?

White balance is based on color temperature, a characteristic of visible light. Essentially, this is about how color is perceived based on the type of light present. For example, a green shirt may look like different colors depending on whether you are outside on a sunny day, under fluorescent lights, or in low lighting.

While human eyes and brains can process how lighting conditions impact colors, digital cameras cannot do this without help.

By setting your white balance to match the light conditions on sight, you are providing that help. You are telling the camera that "this object is white", which allows the camera to adjust all other colors accordingly.

Effects on your data

Setting the white balance to match the conditions of the day will not negatively affect the accuracy of your final model and data. What would be affected are the colors in the images and model.

I still can't do it!

We wrote these articles to equip you with everything you need to get the job done on your own, but we understand that sometimes this isn't sufficient.

If you're stuck, you can connect with our support team by clicking the support button on the top right corner of your user portal.

Related to