Get the perfect white balance using Lightroom on your phone

White balance is a tricky thing: Getting it right (or wrong) can make or break the consistency of your editing. Here’s how to get the white balance right for your phone photos.

Whether you’re shooting on your phone camera, or loading your DSLR photos onto your phone for editing, getting the white balance in Lightroom right is a key step in achieving a consistent edit style in your photos.

How white balance in Lightroom works

White balance is found in Lightroom under the Color tab, and it has two components: Temp and tint. Temp — short for temperature — is a scale from blue to yellow, with different light sources having a different temperature.

Tint is a scale from green to magenta, and this comes from the quality of the light source (primarily what it’s made of, or what surface it is reflecting off).

How to set white balance in Lightroom

You can use the drop-down menu to set the white balance in Lightroom to the conditions, for example cloudy, sunshine, etc. Auto does a pretty good job, but in my experience, most photos will need tweaks to the white balance.

For some photos, auto will just be downright wrong. Depending on your camera settings when shooting, As Shot is often a good bet — unless you forget to change your white balance when moving from outside to inside!

In that case then the eyedropper tool is an effective way to set white balance.

Click the eyedropper then drag the puck cursor over a patch of neutral gray in the image. Aim for a light gray: Think back to the classic photographer’s staple of the 18% gray card. Lightroom will then read the color data automatically and set the correct custom white balance.

Play around, compare and practice

If you don’t get it right on first shot, you can try other parts of the image until you get a white balance that looks right. Prioritize skin tones looking lifelike as a guide.

Edit all the photos in your set using this method, then look at the album in gallery view. How does it look? Are there any images which are obviously colder or warmer than others? Tweak those until the whole album looks consistent.

As you practice your preferred edit style you will develop a finely tuned eye for the white balance you like, and will be able to set it consistently without comparing photos.