White balance setting for night shots

Hello, and Happy Thanksgiving (in the USA),

 

It's wintertime in Minnesota (Twin Cities area). That means the only time I see daylight is on weekends and during

working hours. So I'm thinking that I may as well take advantage of the night and see what happens.

 

I'm in an urban area, and nearly all the ambient lighting is that lovely orange cast put off my modern day street

lighting. On a low cloud night, you could about read a book by the reflection of street lighting off the clouds.

 

I'd like to capture snow falling at night, and street scenes, using the ambient street lighting as the light

source. The camera would be in the area of the streetlights, the lights themselves may or may not be part of the

photo. The camera will typically be on a tripod, but sometimes hand held.

 

I figure I could shoot in B/W mode (on my new K20D), but otherwise, what kind of white balance setting is

appropriate for such lighting conditions? I can find lots of info on shooting at night, but I can't find

anything about where to set white balance. Auto? Shade? Cloudy? One of the bulb modes? Something in custom

(which I've never done)? I won't be using flash (I don't own accessory flash), just ambient light. How are you

taking similar shots?

 

I suppose I could shoot in RAW+JPEG and experiment. With the new 16gig card I bought, I can stuff just over 400

RAW+JPEG exposures on the card.

 

(By the way, this is the Transcend brand 16gig card. The camera tells me I can capture over 1100 full size,

highest quality JPEG's, about 650 RAW, and some rediculous number like 38000 lowest quality, smallest size JPEG's.)

 

And I just took delivery of the Pentax 50mm f/1.4, this will be the lens I'm shooting through.

 

And if you have photo samples that are similar to what I would like to do, please share those as well.

 

Thanks much!

I have done raw under my towns mercury vapor orange and it can not be corrected. The output spectrum is deficient in red & green, therefore there is no blue and green to recover.

 

The best solution is twilight shooting or do storefronts that use more conventional lighting. Shoot raw to preserve options and correct it later if it is possible.

Unless you absolutely hate the idea of processing images as RAW or do not feel comfortable doing it, I would just stick with doing RAW. If going JPEG then I would try and set you in camera white balance manually to say something between 3000-4000K depending upon how late it is and how far you are from the blue hour. It will also depend on the type of street lamps that are there of course. But honestly I would just shoot RAW. It takes all the guess work out of it so why not use it if you have it and you can get just the way you want it in post :) Cheers, Mauro.

Shoot raw. Then correct later as everyone else said.

Alternatively, you could try to set the white balance using the street lights as your "white balance card". That may help in removing the strange coloring caused by the street lamps. You could also take a white/gray card, and white balance for it under the street lamps. Since you seem to shoot in the same area a lot, you can take a test shot, then manually adjust white balance to get it to look the way you want in camera, then use that as the settings for one of your custom white balance (if you're using a k10d or above) that way when you go back out you don't have to reconfigure the white balance each time.

Steve,

 

A few things. As others have said, RAW tends to give you more flexibility with white balance, so use that.

 

Secondly, learn to use the custom white balance functions in your camera. It is highly valuable for most non-daylight situations. On an assignment last month I was limited to jpeg use and had to learn the custom approach. Takes 2-3 practice rounds and you're good. Just have a white card (styrofoam plates are light and sturdy) around.

 

Third, if the custom approach doesn't work, see if you can borrow an Expodisc. I have a larger one and it works though it is erratic.

 

Finally, consider delving into strobe-assisted photography. You can use a cheap older manual for starters (just do high voltage homework for the right models). It will greatly help you capture what you are aiming for. I find flash-work incredibly satisfying and it has made me a much more complete and confident photographer.

 

ME

Just shoot RAW and adjust the WB to your liking when you get home!

I've found with mixed outdoor lighting I'll start with auto white balance because it will probably offer a better review on the LCD. Obviously custom WB can be good if there's a particular light you want to balance for. But agree with others, RAW is your friend when white balance is questionable. I don't find the fluorescent WB presets all that useful--even though there are three of them, none of them usually look right and it makes scrolling through the WB menu more painful.

First of all, to have at least the same hue in all pictures, shot with a time equal to a multiple of AC half sine, i.e. 1/120, 1/60, etc