Why do city lights look different colors in photos, and can I correct them?
Asked 3/9/2013
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When I shoot panoramic city scenes at night, different parts of the image often show orange, green, purple, and white-looking lights. Some of these lights appear white to my eyes in person, but the camera records them as very different colors. I’ve had some success with white balance before, but in scenes like this it seems like there are multiple light sources with different color temperatures. What causes these color differences, and is there any practical way to correct them in post-processing?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
13y ago
2 Answers
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The different colors are caused by different chemicals in the lights. The bright orange ones are sodium vapor. Actually, there are two types of sodium vapor lights, with different colors. The blue/purple are mercury-vapor lights. The green lights may be ordinary florescent lights. The light yellow are probably tungsten, perhaps from car headlights.
You are asking a philosophical question: which is correct? You have to pick one, so that you can correct the color temperature in post-processing. There is no answer. Its trivial to correct one of the types, but I know of no way to correct a collection such as this.
You could try to desaturate the photo, or even push it all the way to black and white.
Originally by user8620. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user8620
13y ago
0
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City night scenes often contain mixed lighting from different lamp types, each with its own spectral color. Common examples include sodium vapor (orange), mercury vapor (blue/purple), fluorescent (greenish), and tungsten or halogen (yellow/white). Your eyes and brain compensate for these differences much better than a camera does, so they may look more neutral in person.
A single white balance setting cannot fully correct a scene lit by several different light sources at once. You can choose one area or one light type to neutralize, but that will usually make other areas look less accurate.
Practical options:
- adjust color locally/zone by zone in post
- accept the mixed colors as part of the night scene
- reduce saturation
- convert to black and white if color is distracting
So yes, you can improve it selectively, but there is no one-click global fix for a cityscape with multiple kinds of lighting.
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