Most digital photographers I know try to get the white balance correct in all their photos. I know I fight with it for stage shows at Walt Disney World. If you need a refresher on white balance for digital cameras, visit Lisa’s excellent post, Understanding White Balance.

It’s easy to forget you can use white balance to create interesting color effects. To demonstrate, I set up my tripod in Japan’s pavilion in Epcot’s World Showcase to photograph one of Samurai Warrior statues at night. The statue is illuminated by artificial lights and by adjusting the white balance of the camera, I created the following three photos.

First, I used my standard white balance setting of Auto. Most of the time this works just fine.

Samurai warrior statue at night in Japan’s pavilion using Auto White Balance.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 20s, f/11, ISO 200, EV 0, 18mm focal length, tripod

Not bad. Yellowish color cast as the light source was very yellow. Next, I tried the Fluorescent white balance setting.

Samurai warrior statue at night in Japan’s pavilion using Fluorescent White Balance.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 20s, f/11, ISO 200, EV 0, 18mm focal length, tripod

Wow…where did the green come from? Fluorescent lighting is greenish so, under fluorescent lighting, the color would have been correct. Lastly, I changed to Incandescent (light bulb) white balance.

Samurai warrior statue at night in Japan’s pavilion using Incandescent White Balance.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 20s, f/11, ISO 200, EV 0, 18mm focal length, tripod

I like this as it gave a more truer color of the scene than the Auto mode. Don’t be afraid to experiment with white balance. Just don’t forget to change it back to your normal setting or you may end up with some green or blue images you weren’t expecting.