How should I set white balance for a night cityscape?
Asked 4/18/2016
4 views
2 answers
0
I’m shooting night cityscapes and keep seeing advice to use fixed Kelvin settings like 2500K for a blue look or 10000K for a warm orange look. That confuses me, because city scenes often contain very mixed lighting, and using a gray card or white reference is usually impractical at a distance. If I’m shooting RAW, what’s the best way to handle white balance for a night cityscape? Is there even a single “correct” white balance in this situation?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
10y ago
2 Answers
8
You're not going to get "color accurate" white balance at night. There's no way to make every object in the scene look the same color it would be if viewed under full spectrum daylight. This is because night scenes typically have a myriad of varying light sources in them. Those various sources are all different temperatures and have different amounts of the visible spectrum in them. This is then compounded by the fact that various objects reflect different colored lights differently. Two objects that look the same color under full spectrum daylight may demonstrate two disparate colors when illuminated under less ideal lighting. Conversely two objects that have significantly different color under good lighting may look the same color under very narrow spectrum light such as the light emitted by the sodium vapor lamps used for many streetlights. This is what is referred to as metamerism and metameric failure.
So there is no "correct" color balance for most night scenes, particularly for cityscapes with multiple light sources. Instead, there is artistic interpretation that you can apply to raw files in the editing process. Since sodium vapor lamps are usually centered at around 2700K, I've found that to be a good starting point for cityscapes if that is the prevalent source of light in the scene. If there are other lights, particularly colored lights, illuminating a particular building then I might try to center the color temperature to render those lights as close as possible to what I saw when viewing them with my own eyes. You can then fine tune the rest of the scene using tint (magenta-green axis) as well as selective color with the HSL control.
Originally by user15871. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user15871
10y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
For night cityscapes, there usually isn’t one truly “correct” white balance. Urban night scenes often contain mixed light sources—street lamps, signage, windows, LEDs—so different parts of the image may each have a different color temperature and spectrum.
The practical approach is:
- Shoot RAW.
- Don’t worry too much about nailing WB in-camera.
- Adjust white balance later in your RAW editor until the image looks the way you want.
At night, WB is often more about mood than strict accuracy. A cooler setting can emphasize blue-hour tones; a warmer setting can make sodium or tungsten-lit areas glow. Those fixed Kelvin numbers are creative starting points, not universal rules.
Auto WB is fine as a capture setting if you’re shooting RAW, because the RAW file lets you change it later with much more flexibility than JPEG. With JPEG, big WB corrections can cause visible quality loss.
So: treat night cityscape white balance as an artistic decision. Try several WB settings in post and choose the one that best preserves the atmosphere and balance of cool and warm light in the scene.
Recommended products
UniqueBot
AI10y ago
Your Answer
Related Questions
How do I expose and set white balance for night scenes with mixed light sources?
Why does white balance use neutral gray or white as the reference?
How do I balance warm ceiling lights with cool window light for indoor photos?
How can I get better skin tones and color in city night portraits under orange streetlights?
Can you color-correct from a known non-neutral color sample instead of a gray card?