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09/25/2011 10:13:10 AM · #1 |
| Not sure if this is a stupid question or not but I will give it a try. What is the color temperature at night? Is it normally on the cooler side or the warmer side or does it depend? Let's say in a city with street lamps in a distance. |
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09/25/2011 10:18:24 AM · #2 |
From my understanding, the color temperature is based on the light that the camera is capturing, whether it be direct sun, sunlight filtered through clouds, different types of artificial lighting, or the combination of all of these.
Therefore, night itself wouldn't have a temperature. The temperature of light would be based on the light that is illuminating your subject which is what your camera is capturing.
I'm certainly no expert on this, but I think that I generally have it right. Others, feel free to correct me. |
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09/25/2011 10:20:10 AM · #3 |
No stupid questions. Any color temperature is correct, depending on what results you want....
My advice is to shoot RAW and adjust in post, or to set a custom white balance off of a white card if you're looking for a well corrected result. |
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09/25/2011 10:23:49 AM · #4 |
With street lights, pretty much all bets are off. Most are high-pressure sodium, but there are are a number of variants and color varies quite a bit. They also do not emit a continuous spectrum, so "color temperature" is really not technically something they have. You'll also face mixed light sources, since indoor illumination will spill out.
The best answer is, the right color temperature is the one that makes the scene look the way you want it to. It's usually best to keep if off of "auto" because your results will be all over the place. You may find that a tungsten WB makes things a bit too blue, so setting a kelvin WB that's not quite as warm as tungsten might be your best bet. ONe specific instance where the WB is a known quantity is when shooting moonlit landscapes. The moon is a sunlit object, and moonlight is therefore fairly close to sunlight, so set WB as if shooting in sunlight.
The best of all worlds is to shoot RAW, and adjust during conversion. Then, all the WB on the camera affects is the display on the rear LCD.
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09/25/2011 10:30:07 AM · #5 |
OK, let me be more precise. I do know that I can adjust white balance during conversion. I am in a process of RAW conversion and I like the scene with the warm tones and with the cool tones. I have to decide which way to go. The goal is to make it as natural as possible. I do not exactly recall how the scene looked like in reality. So which way to go? That's my dilemma.
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09/25/2011 10:34:12 AM · #6 |
Originally posted by maggieddd:
...and I like the scene with the warm tones and with the cool tones. I have to decide which way to go. |
No, you don't have to choose between the two. I sometimes process two versions, one for warm and one for cool, and then mix them. Here's an example:
edit to add a better example, the one that I was originally looking for:
Message edited by author 2011-09-25 10:37:11. |
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09/25/2011 10:36:28 AM · #7 |
Originally posted by maggieddd:
OK, let me be more precise. I do know that I can adjust white balance during conversion. I am in a process of RAW conversion and I like the scene with the warm tones and with the cool tones. I have to decide which way to go. The goal is to make it as natural as possible. I do not exactly recall how the scene looked like in reality. So which way to go? That's my dilemma. |
There truly is no right answer. Perceptually, cooler colors tend to be perceived as more "natural" for nighttime, but that too depends on the scene. So it's really down to what looks best to you.
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09/25/2011 11:03:06 AM · #8 |
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09/25/2011 11:34:03 AM · #9 |
Originally posted by kirbic:
Originally posted by maggieddd:
OK, let me be more precise. I do know that I can adjust white balance during conversion. I am in a process of RAW conversion and I like the scene with the warm tones and with the cool tones. I have to decide which way to go. The goal is to make it as natural as possible. I do not exactly recall how the scene looked like in reality. So which way to go? That's my dilemma. |
There truly is no right answer. Perceptually, cooler colors tend to be perceived as more "natural" for nighttime, but that too depends on the scene. So it's really down to what looks best to you. |
I shoot jpg, and feel that there are a lot of other DPC'ers who are jpg only shooters. My personal experience is that "incandescent/tungsten" WB helps a lot with reducing the orange of the sodium lights that are around most populated areas, and it gives the sky a nice deep blue color. I also shoot several using K temp manual settings, from about 2500 to 4000 if I wish to bracket the color.
For available light scenes with people in them, it's shoot by experimentation and/or experience to get the best skin tones.
If you want to use flash for outdoor night people shots, you might want to experiment with using a jel or celophane on the flash to bring the flash more in line with the color temp of the existing light. If existing light is incandescent or sodium, then using an orange jel on the flash would help to get the foreground that is lit mostly by the flash to match the background, lit by street lighting. That will help prevent getting a big color temp gradient from foreground to background if you are shooting something where that would be critical. It's a trick that was used in the days of film and chemicals. |
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09/25/2011 12:14:31 PM · #10 |
I will almost always process my night shots with a cooler temp. Often in the 4000-5000 range. It makes it look more "natural" and tells the eye that this is indeed shot at night.
An extreme example.
Message edited by author 2011-09-25 12:16:35. |
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