White balance and sunsets

[batmura]

What is the "blue hour"?

It's possibly my favourite time to shoot. I love that tone.

 

[JoeW]

If it's anything involving color extremes (fall foliage, sunrise/sunsets), I NEVER shoot in AWB. The way this was explained to me when I went from film/negatives to digital oh so long ago is that what AWB does is to seek to "balance" the colors and remove the extremes. It takes that saturated sunset you're aiming at and reduces the colors. So it will tone down the red and add more blue. Effectively it sabotages your effort to capture the saturated reds and oranges and yellows.

I typically shoot either in "cloudy" or "daylight" or a custom setting. And yes, I also shoot in RAW.

 

[spacefuzz]

If it helps you envision what the color is doing around sunset, there is a series of photos from a single morning in Death Valley. All shot with the same white balance.

 

[JoeW]

If it helps you envision what the color is doing around sunset, there is a series of photos from a single morning in Death Valley. All shot with the same white balance.

View attachment 65688

That's a great example and very illustrative.

 

[table1349]

Understanding White Balance