White balance for concert photography

I have a 300d and I'm planning to take photo's at a concert next

week, I had success in the past doing the same thing with a 300 and

135 2.8lens. I will be happy with the same lens this time.

 

However the last time I used print film and left the lab to worry

about the colour, this time I'm conscious that leaving the digi body

on auto white balance might really screw things up, so I'm thinking

I'd just use the tungsten option.

 

Does anyone have experience of this and can offer advice.

Hi Phil, you could bring a white card with you and do a custom white balance in the actual location. This would likely give you the best results. See your 300D's manual for instructions on how to do this. (I hope the 300d supports this - my 10D does) Another way to go would be to shoot in RAW mode - that way you can adjust this after the fact in your RAW converter and find the color balance/temperature that works best. Auto white balance usually is pretty lame in tricky lighting. Good luck!

I always use the manual K setting. In this case, it depends on the concert venue, the music genre (is it Rock, Classical, etc...) and the look YOU want to achieve.

 

In most Rock/Pop concert there are many colored lights which make for the characteristic look we all know. In that case, you could use a slightly cooler setting to compensate for the tungsten color temp but, it really depends on what you like. Some prefer a warmer look.

 

In a Classical concert you may want to preserve a more natural look and therefore match more closely the color temps in your 10D with the light source of the venue.

 

You can find a color chart online by doing a Google search.

Just to clarify, it's rock and I'm not official so a custom WB is out of the question. I'd guessed at shooting RAW but as I've never shot RAW to make up for coloured lighting before I was slightly concerned.<div></div>

Hi Phil,

 

Shoot RAW and correct it in conversion of your RAW image files. Lights change all the time and if you shoot JPEG you will be stuck with whatever the body says is best even though your opinion differs. Go RAW you won't be sorry, just be carefull of your exposures when shooting in the dark.

 

HTH

>>I'm not official so a custom WB is out of the question<<

 

I am not sure what you mean... On my 10D I would set the K to about 3700 or so. I don't know if the 300D allows for manual setting of the color temp. Shooting RAW will help. Some venues, for big concerts that are taped and/or televised use "color corrected" lights so, in that case it would be different.

For a concert with lots of different colors, you will really want to be shooting RAW. I had to take pictures of one once, and I was really happy to have shot RAW' even if it meant lots of post-processing... It's actually one of the things that made me like RAW a lot!

 

If for example theres a red light on one side and a green one on the other, the auto setting on the camera might screw things up, but if you shoot RAW you'll be able to get back the colros you want to appear!