White Balance and Sunsets

[jumpinminnow]

I read over the weekend that if you're not going to use a grey card to white balance then sunsets should be shot on the "shade" preset or at a similar color temperature. I'm heading down to the coast tonight for some shooting and was wondering if anyone has any comments or thoughts on this particular shooting situation?

[sailormancga72]

I have been doing a lot of experimenting with WB on my D70s and have found that shooting sunsets with cloudy or shade setting yeilds a little richer color. It also gives a truer skin tone than shooting in the automatic mode. I'm getting to where I almost never use auto setting for WB.

[TXhummer2]

I tried a tip I found at photosig: Using a regular coffee filter to cover the end of the lens, use MANUAL focus, set your custom white balance, reset to your preference of auto focus, shoot the scene in perfect white balance. The coffee filter is easily folded and carried. The only other accessory you may need is a rubber-band to hold it onto the end of your lens.

I tried this with my Fuji E550 (which sets white balance by taking a photo but not saving it). I was astounded by the even richer colors the same scene had compared to auto or another white balance setting. The tipster had a Nikon D70.

[kenw]

I just use the sunlight preset on my canon. It's the closest to reality in my experience and avoids having to futz with it for each shot in manual WB. I never use auto WB.

[CalebSimpson]

There are no rules for this. experiment, have fun, change your color temp, enjoy the various results.

[Clayton Wallace]

Shooting on the shade WB preset will tell the camera you are shooting in blue-tinted light (shade) and therefore add yellow to your images. If you want that, go for it.

Alternately, if you wanted a shot to look less yellow, set the WB for incandescent (the light bulb looking one) and it will add blue to your shot. WB settings can be used like filters.

Best to shoot RAW if available and you can make that call when processing the image from RAW.

FYI, these tips work the same for your other WB settings. For example, florescent light bulb settings will assume there is blue/green (depending on the type of bulbs) and add magenta or yellow.

[Gordon]

It really depends on what you are trying to achieve. In general, you shoot at sunset precisely because of the warm quality of the light. Using a grey card to set white balance effectively removes the one quality of the light that you are trying to get, shooting at sunset.

That is, a custom white balance tries to remove any of the warmth from the light, making it neutral. The whole point of using golden light at sunset, is that it isn't neutral. Same with having your camera set to 'auto'. Again the camera will try to compensate and remove the warm tones from the light - which is why you were there in the first place.

Pick the white balance that enhances the light that you've picked to use. You want to shoot at sunset, then you want to capture the warmth.

[epoh]

I don't really play with WB in-camera. I just shoot raw and worry about it in post.

[engstrom]

I agree with Gordon on this 100%.

[amadjuster]

Last night was the first chance I have had to try my D200 on sunsets. The shots were within a couple of minutes of each other and I had the White Balance set at AUTO, ASA at 200, and MATRIX metering. As far as I am concerned, the color in the clouds was exactly as I saw it. I metered in more of the clouds on the second shot but the color is right on. I was never able to do this with my film SLR's and I am really liking this camera more and more! When I used the Auto Levels correction in CS2, it wiped out all of the great colors and made it look like daylight!

[Clayton Wallace]

Good experiment. One point, never use auto levels in extreme lighting situations. You will get results like you just found. Always better to do it manually.

Auto Levels can be a useful tool for batching large amounts of outdoor images that have a bit of a color cast.

And of course try to avoid power lines for keeper shots.

[amadjuster]

This wasn't a keeper, it was a fast shot in between trick 'r treaters. Sorry about the powerlines. I still think that the color was remarkable, considering most "AUTO" settings tend to correct the wrong way. Thanks for the reply and advise.

[Clayton Wallace]

I figured as much. Just last night I tossed some shots from a sunset several weeks ago that had the most AMAZING color. Of course I was in the car, stuck in traffic with no suitable item to sillouette in the foreground.

The act of shooting itself can be enjoyable, even if I know it won't be one of my best. Gotta stay sharp!