Fun in the Night

[Shadowman]

Fun Bike
Fun Bike by JOHN, on Flickr

Fun Skate
Fun Skate by JOHN, on Flickr

[Manfred M]

The one rule I was taught a long time ago dealing with shooting people is that it is almost always best to have natural looking skin tones, regardless of what else is going on in the image. Blue is one of those colours that tends not to work all that well. Warming up the images would be worth considering?

[zen]

I like the warmer version . . .

Zen

[Shadowman]

The one rule I was taught a long time ago dealing with shooting people is that it is almost always best to have natural looking skin tones, regardless of what else is going on in the image. Blue is one of those colours that tends not to work all that well. Warming up the images would be worth considering?

Hi Manfred,

Thanks for comments and suggestions, I used tungsten white balance because of the artificial lights.

[Shadowman]

I like the warmer version . . .

Zen

Hi Zen,

Thanks for viewing.

[FootLoose]

Nice set John. The sky seems a bit more natural to me in the first shot rather than the warmer edit? Just curious.

[Shadowman]

Nice set John. The sky seems a bit more natural to me in the first shot rather than the warmer edit? Just curious.

Hi Greg,

Thanks for commenting.

[Manfred M]

Nice set John. The sky seems a bit more natural to me in the first shot rather than the warmer edit? Just curious.

Greg - I find that is quite typical of urban night shots - the sky is lit by all kinds of light sources and depending on the local street lighting has traditionally been high pressure sodium or metal halide arc lighting. Add newer technology like LED and magnetic induction lights and you get a real mix of colour temperatures. These tend to reflect off the clouds and I find that I often get the warmer sky when trying to get the colours in the foreground to look more correct.

The last time I did a lot of night time photography and paid attention to the sky, this was the actual colour of the sky. Get out of urban areas with all the light pollution from city lights and the skies were more of a black or a blue-black.

[Manfred M]

Hi Manfred,

Thanks for comments and suggestions, I used tungsten white balance because of the artificial lights.

Unfortunately, these are NOT tungsten lights (3200K), so that setting does not get you natural looking colours. 10 or 20 years ago, tungsten settings were appropriate for indoor photography in home environments. Fluorescent lights were (and still are) the most common light sources in indoor commercial and office environments. When I look around the house, a older halogen fixtures are the only ones that are close to a tungsten white balance; these tend to run from 3000K - 3600K.

Also, some of these light sources will exhibit some strange spectral spikes giving spectral curves that bear no resemblance to either daylight or tungsten light sources.

Auto white balance might be the best solution here as it would at least pick up the most prominent light source, but even that may not give you the colours you are looking for.

[Shadowman]

Unfortunately, these are NOT tungsten lights (3200K), so that setting does not get you natural looking colours. 10 or 20 years ago, tungsten settings were appropriate for indoor photography in home environments. Fluorescent lights were (and still are) the most common light sources in indoor commercial and office environments. When I look around the house, a older halogen fixtures are the only ones that are close to a tungsten white balance; these tend to run from 3000K - 3600K.

Also, some of these light sources will exhibit some strange spectral spikes giving spectral curves that bear no resemblance to either daylight or tungsten light sources.

Auto white balance might be the best solution here as it would at least pick up the most prominent light source, but even that may not give you the colours you are looking for.

Hi Manfred,

Camera was set to Auto WB, I tried a few different choices, tungsten worked best for "fun skate" so I used the same for "fun bike", both were taken minutes apart but difference between both shots were the flashing lights used for the skating event.