What I Learned From Shooting Kelvin During a Paid Family Session

I'm going to be really honest about something I had to make a decision about during this session.

I switched back to Auto White Balance.

And I'm actually okay with that.

I've been working toward becoming more confident shooting in Kelvin because I really love the skin tones I can get when I have it dialed in correctly. My editing has also been moving toward a more natural look, so getting those skin tones right in camera has become a bigger goal for me.

And I wasn't completely new to Kelvin going into this session.

I've photographed multiple sessions using Kelvin with guidance, and I went into this extended family session feeling much more confident about what I was doing.

I started around 6300K.

Then I moved to 6600K.

Then I eventually pushed it all the way to 7000K.

And at 7000K, I remember thinking, This should be where I want it.

Except it wasn't.

Looking back at the situation now, I think I was probably past the point where I needed to keep adjusting my temperature.

I think I needed to start looking at tint.

More specifically, I probably needed to move toward magenta.

But there were twelve people standing in front of me.

This wasn't a styled shoot.

It wasn't a model session.

It wasn't an afternoon where I could stand there for ten minutes and experiment with my settings while someone waited.

It was a paid family session, and I didn't want the family standing around while I tried to troubleshoot something I wasn't completely confident about yet.

So I switched to Auto White Balance.

And here's the part I'm learning to be okay with:

My client comes before my pride.

I've photographed in Auto White Balance for years.

I know how to use it.

I know how those files behave.

And I know what I'm capable of producing from them.

So if switching to something I know extremely well means I can stop thinking about my camera settings and start paying attention to the family in front of me, that's the right decision.

Maybe there was a little bit of stage fright involved.

Maybe I just need more independent practice with Kelvin before it becomes instinctive.

Either way, I wasn't going to make a paying client's session my practice ground just to prove to myself that I could shoot the entire thing in Kelvin.

And honestly, once I stopped worrying about it, I was able to focus on what actually mattered.

A baby who needed her binky.

A little girl who didn't want to leave her dad.

A family with twelve people and a whole bunch of different personalities to work around.

I had to adjust constantly.

And that's really what this session taught me.

Photography isn't just technical.

Knowing your settings matters. Understanding white balance matters. Knowing your camera matters.

But so does knowing when to stop messing with your settings and pay attention to the people you're photographing.

I still want to nail Kelvin.

I'm not giving up on it.

If anything, this session made me want to practice it more.

I want to do more styled shoots and model sessions where I can intentionally work through Kelvin and tint together.

I want to be able to look at a photograph and immediately know, This isn't temperature. This is tint.

I want that to become instinctive.

But I want to learn it in a way that doesn't compromise the experience I'm giving my clients.

That's probably the biggest lesson I'm taking from this session.

I'm not trying to learn Kelvin so I can tell people, “I shoot in Kelvin.”

I'm trying to learn it because I want to create the natural skin tones and overall look that I'm working toward in my photography.

There's a difference.

And I'm still figuring it out.