Photography- White Balance

Last night, we filled a bag with candy, pumpkins & camera gear and headed to a random field to attempt a few family photos.  I will share some of the photos soon, but I wanted to give you all an example of how "White Balance" can change a shot entirely.

When I first started taking test shots and adjusting my camera settings, I was disappointed that the golden light and colorful leaves were not being captured.  I played around with aperture and shutter speed and even ISO, but they all still looked a little off.

Here is my first image of JR:

( 1/1250 f/1.8 ISO 400 )

Then I wondered if my White Balance needed adjusting... I saw that it was set to Auto White Balance which was normal for me.  I have maybe used the Manual White Balance Preset once or twice over the years- usually keeping it set on Auto and then adjusting in Photoshop or LightRoom after photographing.  But I thought I would change it to "Shade" and see how it looked:

 ( 1/1250 f/1.8 ISO 400 )

I didn't adjust anything on the camera except for White Balance and it made that big of a difference!  It took out the gray cast and captured the golden light I was seeing in person.  Thankfully all of the shots were taken in a fully shaded area, so I didn't have to worry about switching the White Balance back and forth.  I guess the adjustments could have been made later on with photo editing- but it sure saves time to adjust things and try to capture the look the right way from the beginning!

And here is a little outtake: