Most recipes have a line like "White balance: Auto, +2 Red & −4 Blue". The first part is the white balance mode. The numbers are the shift: a nudge applied on top of whatever the mode decides.

The two axes

The shift is a grid with two axes, each running from −9 to +9.

• R: plus moves towards red, minus towards cyan.
• B: plus moves towards blue, minus towards yellow.

So +2R −4B adds red and yellow: warmer, the classic film-print direction. −1R +2B is cooler. Plus on both drifts towards magenta, minus on both towards green.

Each step is small. One or two is subtle. Past ±5 you get a cast on everything, white walls included, which is sometimes exactly the point.

Setting it

Open white balance, from the Q menu, the WB button if your body has one, or IMAGE QUALITY SETTING. Highlight a mode and press MENU/OK: the shift grid opens. Move the point with the arrow keys or the focus lever and confirm. For a Kelvin value, you pick the temperature first and the grid follows.

The mode matters as much as the shift

A shift is relative to the mode. On Auto, the camera first takes out most of the colour of the light, then adds your shift. Under orange street lights, Auto +2R −4B comes out pleasantly warm. On Daylight nothing is taken out, so the same lights come out very orange. That's why recipes name both.

Auto is forgiving but changes from frame to frame. Daylight or a fixed Kelvin value stays consistent across a sequence and keeps the colour of the light. Newer bodies also have Auto White Priority, which keeps whites white under warm light, and Auto Ambience Priority, which keeps more of the warmth.

Where the shift is stored

Fujifilm cameras keep a separate shift for each white balance mode. From the X-Pro3, X100V and X-T4 on, a custom setting also saves its own white balance and shift. On earlier bodies it doesn't, so every slot that uses Auto shares Auto's shift. How to load a recipe has the workaround.

When a recipe looks off

Check the white balance mode and shift before blaming the recipe. Shoot something white or grey in daylight: it should look warm or cool the way the recipe intends, not like a mistake. If it still looks wrong, your body may not have the recipe's film simulation; see film simulations by camera. Then try it on a recipe from the recipes page.