Help with night Photography

iluvphotography · Jun 29, 2006

OK I don't know if this is my place (being a noobi and all) but I didn't want to go to the beginners forum cuz I thought all you pros don't look at that forum... Anyway sorry if I have a supid quesion..

So I jus got back from Italy and I took some night shots but they all have an orange/redish colors .. I tried everything I could.. like different apr. and shuter speed, ISo, etc... but still too orange... I know the light source could be red but I got perfect shots with my point and shoot camera...

Here are a few examples... Please let me know what did I do wrong and if I can fix them in Photoshop and how...

OK HOW DO I POST A PHOTO HERE???

Protean · Jun 30, 2006

in the message box, theres an icon with a mountain in it, click, and put in the url of the picture (it has to be posted on the web somewhere eles)

Digital Matt · Jun 30, 2006

You didn't quite try EVERYTHING you could

I assume you are using digital. You have to set your white balance accordingly. Most outdoor street lights are tungesten, so you'll want to adjust for that.

iluvphotography · Jun 30, 2006

Here are a few examples... Please let me know what did I do wrong and if I can fix them in Photoshop and how...http://static.flickr.com/49/178049323_de8b7729ed.jpg?v=0

OK here we go this is one example.. thanks for the instruction..

Thanks Matt... I wish I knew this before I went away:-(

So how do I set the white balance?? Is there anything I can do now to make these pictures look better??

Digital Matt · Jun 30, 2006

You didn't say what camera you are using, so I have no idea how to set your white balance. I'm sure you'll find it in the manual though.

You can adjust the color in photoshop using color balance. Look at a color wheel sometime. You need to add some of the opposite color to counteract the color cast. In this case, you would add blue/cyan, which you'll easily see using Photoshop's color balance, are opposite of yellow and red.

iluvphotography · Jun 30, 2006

I am using Canon Rebel 300D.

I have tried the color balance but still is not perfect.... Oh I am so sad...

Here is my attemp in Photoshop for another picture.. it has too much green now.. what do you think??

Digital Matt · Jun 30, 2006

Shoot in raw, and you can achieve perfect color balance afterwards.

That picture is too small for me to reall tell, but it doesn't look too green. It's very reddish/orange.

For help identifying a color cast, you can duplicate the background layer, and run an average blur on it. It will blur the scene into one color (the average). Invert it, (ctrl+i) then set the blend mode of this layer to "color", and reduce the opacity until it looks good. This creates a layer of the opposite color, to cancel out the color cast. You have to balance it.

iluvphotography · Jun 30, 2006

Mmm.... interesting... I'll have to try it when I go home tonight.. I am at work now and don't have Photoshop..

Ohhh I am so sad.. I wish I had asked all these questions before I left... I even thought about shooting in RAW when I was in Europe but then I thought I don't know how to develop them and I might screw up...

I picked up my first DSLR before I left for my trip so I didn't have a lot of experience with it.. I am used to Film SLR..

Digital Matt · Jun 30, 2006

There's nothing difficult about RAW, and there's nothing you can screw up. You can always click a button to revert the image to how it was shot.

hot shot · Jun 30, 2006

to rescue these try using some filters to cool the image just a idea

iluvphotography · Jun 30, 2006

Could you please elaborate on that?

Use filter at the time of shooting or use filter in Photoshop?

hot shot · Jun 30, 2006

using filters in photoshop
go
image
>adjustments
>photo filter

might work dunno

Dom

iluvphotography · Jul 1, 2006

Digital Matt said:
For help identifying a color cast, you can duplicate the background layer, and run an average blur on it. It will blur the scene into one color (the average). Invert it, (ctrl+i) then set the blend mode of this layer to "color", and reduce the opacity until it looks good. This creates a layer of the opposite color, to cancel out the color cast. You have to balance it.

OK i tried this but I couldn't make it work... I went as far as Duplicating the Background... How do I do average blur??

Philip Weir · Jul 1, 2006

From one of your posts, I surmise you are using film, not digital and probably daylight film. Accordingly you will have an orange cast. Personally, when using film for night shots, I always use daylight film, I prefer the orange cast. Anyway your only way out in a similar instance is use tungsten film or as Digital Matt advised, use a blue/green or blue/cyan filter. It won't necessarily correct it perfectly as often ouside street type lighting might be quarz/iodine or similar, which are a different colour balance again. The other problem is what you consider perfect based on the one you thought was too green. Philip.

www.philipweirphotography.com