Creative White Balance?

[DGMPhotography]

So.. I've run into this problem before, and am curious what your thoughts on this may be.

In venues for concerts and the like, there's often all sorts of crazy colorful lighting. A lot of the time, it's possible to correct it via white balance in Lightroom, but should you? Is it simply a matter of preference? And if so, what's your preference and why?

Here are some examples from the last acapella concert I went to.

Corrected VS Original


Corrected VS Original


And yeah, it's not done perfectly, but what do you think?

Thanks!

 

[manaheim]

I'm curious about this myself. I usually vary it up (on the rare occasion I do this.) I leave some with the color, I correct some, I push some a little more, and I b/w some.

 

[Derrel]

It depends on the situation, and the photo. I encounter this a lot at the Oregon coast, late in the day. Sometimes I think allowing the color to "go blue" makes sense, and at other times correcting to a more normal 'daylight' look can look better. It depends on the desired effect, but I normally will prefer a more blue-toned look late in the day, rather than one that says, "Straight-up noon white light". I say, take white balance on a case-by-case basis; if it looks better one way, go with it that way, no matter what.

 

[Derrel]

Okay, so I just made a couple quick Lightroom exports. I went to the coast last Friday to try out a new used lens. Anyway, as the sun was going down, I asked these two ladies if I could shoot a few photos of them enjoying their small beach fire and doing their cell-phone photography. They both readily agreed. I sat down behind them with my 35 f/2 AF-D Nikkor on the camera because while I wanted a wide-ish view, I ALSO wanted to have the background appear reasonably large, not itty-bitty, which is tha main reason I loathe really wide, wide-angle lenses, because they utterly KILL the background, size-wise.

Anyway, here is what the light and mood looked like when shot at Daylight white balance, of 5,050 Degrees Kelvin.




And now here is what the scene FELT LIKE, and seemed to be like, to my eye, which was at 9,727 Degrees Kelvin.



Sunset At D-Sands, April 2014

 

[DGMPhotography]

Thanks for the insights, y'all... and it certainly makes sense in your case Derrel. But with concerts, is it better to keep the crazy colors to maintain a sense of the atmosphere the shot was actually taken in, or should it be corrected to give a more accurate sense of what the scene would look like without those lights. In this case, correcting white balance would make the image into something it wasn't in-person.

If I did it case-by-case, you don't think it being inconsistent would be a problem? In portraiture, I know it's good to keep the white balance relatively uniform (at least if you're following rules), but maybe it's different for performances?

 

[DGMPhotography]

Bump

 

[Derrel]

Thanks for the insights, y'all... and it certainly makes sense in your case Derrel. But with concerts, is it better to keep the crazy colors to maintain a sense of the atmosphere the shot was actually taken in, or should it be corrected to give a more accurate sense of what the scene would look like without those lights. In this case, correcting white balance would make the image into something it wasn't in-person.

If I did it case-by-case, you don't think it being inconsistent would be a problem? In portraiture, I know it's good to keep the white balance relatively uniform (at least if you're following rules), but maybe it's different for performances?

$64,000 Question.

Performances change light colors the way Kim Kardashian changes shoes and outfits....you NEVER KNOW WHAT to expect. There is no definite answer. You're asking a question akin to, "How big is big?" The answer you seek is not there. You're asking about a moving target, and the proper sight picture for said target--but there is NO,one,single sight picture that is always right.

How fast is fast? When is heavy too heavy? How much debt is too much debt? When is the color in a photo too saturated?

 

[DGMPhotography]

Thanks for the insights, y'all... and it certainly makes sense in your case Derrel. But with concerts, is it better to keep the crazy colors to maintain a sense of the atmosphere the shot was actually taken in, or should it be corrected to give a more accurate sense of what the scene would look like without those lights. In this case, correcting white balance would make the image into something it wasn't in-person.

If I did it case-by-case, you don't think it being inconsistent would be a problem? In portraiture, I know it's good to keep the white balance relatively uniform (at least if you're following rules), but maybe it's different for performances?

$64,000 Question.

Performances change light colors the way Kim Kardashian changes shoes and outfits....you NEVER KNOW WHAT to expect. There is no definite answer. You're asking a question akin to, "How big is big?" The answer you seek is not there. You're asking about a moving target, and the proper sight picture for said target--but there is NO,one,single sight picture that is always right.

How fast is fast? When is heavy too heavy? How much debt is too much debt? When is the color in a photo too saturated?

Fair enough, just a matter of preference then.

So how about I be more specific. How would you, personally, handle the photos I posted as examples?