What is white balance (USB Camera)?

1. What is White Balance?

When the colors of the subject and the camera are significantly different, white balance correction is necessary. White balance correction is a function that corrects the differences in color caused by the color temperature of the light source to make the colors closer to reality. For example, in images, under sunlight, colors tend to appear orange or yellowish, while under fluorescent light, they often appear green or cyan. This condition is corrected.

In consumer digital cameras, there are preset mechanisms such as automatic correction, daylight preset, and fluorescent light preset, making it easy to correct. However, industrial cameras have correction mechanisms that are more precise and can adapt to various light sources.”

 

2. What is Color Temperature?

Color temperature is a scale used to represent the color of light emitted by sources such as lighting, with the unit being Kelvin (K). For example, for white LEDs, products with various color temperature ranks are available. Even within the category of white, there are variations such as ‘bluish,’ ‘yellowish,’ or ‘reddish’.”

 

3. How to Correct White Balance in Industrial Cameras:

  1. Place a white piece of paper or similar object to be captured in the entire image.

  2. Reset brightness/contrast/gain to default settings and adjust the brightness using the lens aperture so that it does not saturate. Correcting the brightness becomes inaccurate if it saturates. It’s best to make it as bright as possible without saturation, but if you’re unsure whether it’s saturated, it’s better to make it slightly dimmer.

  3. Click on the ‘One push’ button under White Balance in the camera properties or settings.

  • Note: In the case of fluorescent lighting, the image may flicker, making it difficult to correct properly. In such cases, temporarily reduce the clock value to reduce flickering before making corrections.”

 

4. Manual White Balance Adjustment for Industrial Cameras:

1) Reset all camera settings to default.

2) Capture a scene with as many whitish objects as possible in the environment. Adjust the brightness slightly dimmer using the lens aperture to avoid saturation.

3) Click on the ‘One push’ button under White Balance in the camera properties or settings. If the colors are not significantly different after clicking, it’s okay. If the colors still don’t match, proceed to step 4.

4) Capture the object you want to photograph and manually adjust the values related to Red/Blue/Green in the camera properties or settings to bring the colors closer to reality.

* Note: In the case of fluorescent lighting, the image may flicker, making it difficult to correct properly. In such cases, temporarily reduce the clock value to reduce flickering before making corrections.”