White Balance on Dark Rides

Discussion in 'Photography 101' started by mSummers, Dec 16, 2009.

  1. mSummers

    mSummers Member

    Does anyone have any tips for getting the white balance right on the dark rides? ;

    The last time I was at WDW (my first trip with a DSLR), all of my dark ride shots came out with a strong red-orange color cast that I couldn't remove in post. ; In case it matters, I was shooting with a D2Xs on Auto WB. ; Since then I have upgraded to a D700. ;
     
  2. Craig

    Craig Member Staff Member

    I've been shooting rides on auto WB.
    Rides are the one time when I do shoot raw.

    My d300 has way better white balance than my d80. That should compare to your d2x to d700 upgrade path also?
     
  3. Craig

    Craig Member Staff Member

    NIght Time White Balance at WDW tip

    I have had great luck my past two trips shooting WDW at night using manual white balance of 3200-3500 K white balance settings!

    I have done no formal testing, but I seem to get nice natural colors when shooting this way.
     
  4. WDWFigment

    WDWFigment Member

    You're getting the red-orange cast on all dark rides? ; I've really only experienced it on PotC and maybe one or two others (nothing comes to mind off the top of my head). ; To remove the PotC cast, decrease your saturation of the reds and oranges after adjusting the temperature (go as cool as you can). ; All of this can be done in ACR.

    This is one of the main reasons I always shoot in RAW. ; I look at WB as more of a creative thing than getting it "right". ; To me, a lot of the times a technically incorrect WB looks better than the correct one, so it's nice to change them and see what I prefer in post. Additionally, I'm too lazy to set WB for each situation while shooting. ; I'm going to be doing post processing for any shot I post anyway, so why not take the couple of seconds to adjust WB in post? ; (I know, somewhat of a contradiction--I'm lazy when shooting but not when editing...more like I'd rather do shooting as quickly as possible as I have other pressing priorities at WDW. ; In front of the computer, I can screw around and tweak things longer).
     
  5. Roger

    Roger Member Staff Member

    I use A2's dropper on a white or gray item in the scene...that usually gets it close. ; Then I'll adjust the color temperature sliders. ; Works good enough for me.

    Been much better on digital than film ever did, esp. on POTC.
     
  6. mSummers

    mSummers Member

    I'm hoping that is the case.

    Sorry Tom... ; I didn't word that statement well. ; I said that I was getting that on all of my dark ride shots, but I forgot to say which rides. ; I had that trouble on PotC, HM and parts of SSE. ; I forgot that the white balance was only slightly off in American Adventure, Country Bears and Great Movie Ride, but I was able to correct those in post. ;

    I always shoot RAW so that I can correct things in the computer if I need to, but I prefer to get it right in the camera so I don't have to spend as much time on the computer. ;
     
  7. mSummers

    mSummers Member

    That's sort of what I do in Capture NX2. ; I set a black point on every image and set a white point when there is one in the image and then I adjust the WB only when necessary. ;

    I'm beginning to think that my problem was that the D2Xs just wasn't that good at reading the WB on those rides. ; ;
     
  8. Paul

    Paul Member

    Identical to what I do in Lightroom; shoot RAW!
     

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