Nightshots & White Balance

[jihemtee]

Hello,

When doing nightshots and shooting manual, what are the best white balance settings to respect colours the most? Presets? Colour temperature?

thx

[talleyfamilyphotography]

Depends on what you are shooting. If there are a lot of artificial lights in the picture (say, a city skyline), I'd start with tungsten WB.

The good part about digital is that you can try different settings and see what the image looks like on your LCD and adjust from there.

[jdepould]

I just WB in post, I find the 2600-2800 range works well in the city.

[alexphotos]

Shot in raw and do what ever you like in ps after with the white balance.

[dougj]

I generally shoot in auto WB and adjust in post processing if necessary. This works OK with JPG most of the time, but it is a lot easier with RAW.

[gummyb]

If you shoot RAW you can always decide later. I find the "wrong" WB on night shots nice too.

Here are samples using 3000, 5500, and 7000:

http://www.pbase.com/gummyb/san_francisco_by_night

[dehl]

Actually, I would agree that it all depends of what you are shooting
and what type of light illuminates it. I just shot quite a bit in Lisbon
streets while visiting and the yellow street tungsten lights are so
warm colorwise that 2000+/- range cools it just enough to get great
images. Then a few days later I shot night images in Paris and the
5000 range was just fine. It all depends on the subject and you
should also consult your camera manual as it gives you the basics
on that in relation to your camera.

Here are night photos shot in Paris (handheld and shot around 10/11PM):

http://www.pbase.com/dehl/nuit_parisienne