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Hidden Colour Filters in Cameras

R1231038L (Camera: GX200 with WB biased towards greenish blue)

That a good shot doesn't necessarily require a great camera should sound to you as much a common sense as every point-and-shoot camera has some hidden functions in addition to those meet the eye, with or without taking into account the user's photographic skill. The functions are already built-in. The only problem is whether the user knows how to use them. We have discussed one of them in an earlier post this week.

Now if you are using an enthusiast compact, it surely allows you to manually bias the white balance towards a certain colour to shoot images with a colour filter effect. Fact is, you can work around the WB of an entry-level point-and-shoot camera to achieve comparable results. 

R1231040L (Camera: GX200 with WB biased slightly towards green and red)

This is how:
- Go to the menu and look for White Balance (WB)
- In the WB page, activate WB Set or Setting WB where you can fine-tune or define "whiteness"
- Usually, once the WB Set is enabled, the LCD screen will show a rectangular box in the middle
- Point the rectangular box to the "whiteness" of your choice and press the required button to select

About the choice of "whiteness":
- The camera sees a scene in the colour contrasting your chosen colour
- Contrasting colours are colours opposite one another on a colour scheme dial
- Google "Colour Scheme" to see what it is if you are not sure
- For example, choose green if a red filter effect is desirable
- Or choose orange if a blue filter effect is desirable, and so on

The colour filter can result in some dramatic images, especially for landscape shots. Have fun!

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