Orange city lights...

[kwik]

So over the past few nights I went out to shoot the city and learn thing with my camera. But I'm really getting sick of every shot I take is orange. A buddy of mine came out last night with me and he changed his white balance settings to a custom. I asked him how he did it and he said I don't have a clue I can't remember. Fair enough. I gotta know how to get rid of the orange lights I find they are ruining my pictures.

Here are some examples of his and mine.

His:







Mine







and we were only about 5 feet away from each other.

 

[Ron Evers]

Neither are correct in my opinion. Change your white balance to tungsten & try again.

 

[kwik]

That will take care of some of that gawd awful orange glow?

 

[goodoneian]

it should, yeah. i usually shoot in tungsten at night, or custom white balance to somewhere around tungsten temperature

 

[kwik]

Just thought I'd point out my camera is a Canon Rebel XSi

Ok so I just quickly took some flicks going through the white balance settings

The first one is 'custom' (i usually thought custom meant changing settings yet there is no settings to change)




Second White Fluorescent light (approx. 4000k)




Third is Tungsten LIght (appros 3200k)




Fourth is cloudy




Fifth is shade




Sixth is daylight




seventh is auto




Now I see what your saying the Tungsten Light does take away a little of that Orange glow. However it still seems like still not enough.

Comments?

 

[TwoRails]

I would imagine that camera will allow you to set the actual K number? If so, keep lowering the number and see what happens. Going from 4000 to 3200 made a noticeable difference... maybe 2500 might bring out what you want.

 

[kwik]

So I was reading my user manual again. and it helped a bit

Kind of got what i'm looking for




Like I said..it's that orange glow that drives me INSANE!

 

[RyanMTaylor]

Yeah, and so you know what the preset temperatures are doing some: If you set your WB to Tungsten that means you are trying to compensate for a Tungsten(or more orange, warmer) light. So if you shoot with your WB set to Tungsten and you're in strong sunlight then a lot of things will turn out very blue because it's trying to compensate or adjust the temperature of your exposure for the wrong kind of light. And as TwoRails said, you may want to play with the actual Kelvin number to achieve what you need. Sometimes lights are way too orange to get accurate colors otherwise.

The custom setting is to use with an existing photo on the canera to base it off of for the WB. I have the XS and it doesn't let me punch in values while I'm out shooting. Might be different for the XSI though.

 

[kwik]

It's not different..i can't punch in the exact kelvin i'm looking for...according to my instruction manual but it said to take a pic of a white surface and set it from that which is what i did

 

[RyanMTaylor]

Yeah. And then you set your custom to that image? Hm l'm not sure then. I'm still pretty new to this.

 

[kwik]

Yeah. And then you set your custom to that image? Hm l'm not sure then. I'm still pretty new to this.

Me to actually.

Pg 90 of my instruction manual was help...any other tips?

 

[tenlientl]

Neither are correct in my opinion. Change your white balance to tungsten & try again.

I actually thought the first one was somewhat correct?

So what makes a correct WB in your opinion? I'm actually having a hard time deciding what WB to use? I have my WB set in Auto. I shoot RAW, so i just adjust with LR2.

 

[El2]

I usually have my grey card. Here is one you can print off of Flickr if you have a fancy printer: http://www.flickr.com/photos/photo208cam/273366781/

What I do to fix my WB issues, is I would take the picture of the grey card in the lighting condition that you want to shoot. Then I would select the custom WB and I would select the picture of the grey card and set the custom WB to that. I think its easier than manipulating the temperature.

Hope that helps!

 

[Village Idiot]

Neither are correct in my opinion. Change your white balance to tungsten & try again.

The first is pretty close. And the blue lights in scene from the drastically altered color temperature makes a really good photo.

 

[Village Idiot]

It's not different..i can't punch in the exact kelvin i'm looking for...according to my instruction manual but it said to take a pic of a white surface and set it from that which is what i did

I believe the 2nd link is a youtube video detailing the process. I can't see youtube videos at work though:
http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt...p=setting+custom+wb+xsi&fr=yfp-t-501&ei=UTF-8