WB on Main St.

[WillowBelle]

For you pro's out there. What WB do you set your camera for on Main St. at night? My photos from my last trip turned out very yellow. My memory says that the bulbs put off a whiter cast than was caught. Here is a picture after much PP:

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y247/mom22/mainst.jpg

Does this even look remotely close to the coloring at night? Would rather not have to correct the 'color', I'm not so good at that. They tend to look almost monochromatic by the time I'm finished.

TIA.

[boBQuincy]

I am not a pro, far from it, but since I shoot in RAW I usually leave the WB set to auto. For some of my night Main Street photos the WB is set to 2850 K which looks too white to me. As a personal preference I like the slightly yellow warm look to evoke the old time feel of Main Street so I go for more like 4000 K.

http://www.suzieandbob.com/wdw/feb_09/main_street_1954_2_3.jpg

Technically Main Street is probably lit by a mix of incandescent and other light sources, some of which are not full spectrum (like in Casey's), making WB difficult.

[zackiedawg]

Agree with Bob...I tend to like it a little on the warm side. I too use Auto WB most of the time, and slightly correct if need be...but favor a slightly warmer, slightly yellow/red lean to the WB.

(sorry...don't have too many uploaded at this time...these three were all handheld as I had no tripod with me that night):

http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg/image/108793189.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg/image/108793191.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg/image/108793187.jpg

[ukcatfan]

I am also with Bob. The adjustments in the OP's shot make it look unnatural.

[WillowBelle]

TY for posting your photos. I must've done it right and then "fixed" it wrong.

ukcatfan, will defo try to correct this on my next visit. I didn't realize that I was taking out all of the warmth until I saw something to compare to.

[boBQuincy]

Well, there really is no wrong here, our eyes adjust to almost any WB until it all looks natural to us. If anything, the whiter tone is probably most correct but when we make the creative decision to add some yellow/red we are going more for how it "felt" than how it actually looked.

That is part of the fun of photography to me, to find a way to show the viewer how the scene made me feel as well as how it looked.

[ukcatfan]

TY for posting your photos. I must've done it right and then "fixed" it wrong.

ukcatfan, will defo try to correct this on my next visit. I didn't realize that I was taking out all of the warmth until I saw something to compare to.

If you still have your originals b4 PP, then you are still free to do what you want with the existing photos. If you did not keep originals, then I recommend doing so in the future, or shooting RAW if available.

FWIW, I think Justin nailed the WB for "true to life".

[WillowBelle]

I was trying to make the picture appear true-to-life, more than how it felt. That said, I'm not a big fan of overly yellow photos. One of the good things about WDW is that it's always there to go back and try to re-do. Every year I have a years worth of photography experience under my belt that will just help me excel while I'm there and bring back memory cards full with better photos than the previous years.

ukcatfan - I do have the originals. I always keep a set of originals on my computer. I just started dabling in RAW. I'm still very unsure of using it (though am trying to read and read and learn more) and don't have enough memory cards to go to WDW and shoot in only RAW (I only have about 10G worth of memory cards). I'm hoping to buy another 4G before we go.

[ukcatfan]

I'm still very unsure of using it (though am trying to read and read and learn more) and don't have enough memory cards to go to WDW and shoot in only RAW (I only have about 10G worth of memory cards). I'm hoping to buy another 4G before we go.

Get on the Buy.com e-mail list. They have memory deals all the time. Not sure what memory type you need, but 4GB on SD is less than $20 on a daily basis lately.

[annnewjerz]

Get on the Buy.com e-mail list. They have memory deals all the time. Not sure what memory type you need, but 4GB on SD is less than $20 on a daily basis lately.

Yup---just ordered two Sandisk 4GB Ultra II SDHC cards for $15 each and free shipping. :thumbsup2 I know there were Kingston 8gb cards for (I believe) $10 the other week as well, but the price seems to have gone up. :sad2:

[WillowBelle]

Get on the Buy.com e-mail list. They have memory deals all the time. Not sure what memory type you need, but 4GB on SD is less than $20 on a daily basis lately.

Thanks for the tip. I use a CF card (I have a 50D - previous photo was with a Canon Rebel), so will not be able to take advantage of that deal. Maybe they have other deals some times that I can take advantage of.

[annnewjerz]

Thanks for the tip. I use a CF card (I have a 50D - previous photo was with a Canon Rebel), so will not be able to take advantage of that deal. Maybe they have other deals some times that I can take advantage of.

FWIW, Buy.com has 2gb CF cards right now for $15 and free shipping. Better deals on Amazon if you are interested in 4gb cards...no free shipping, but the price of the card combined with the shipping is still less than the cards on Buy.com. :thumbsup2

[MICKEY88]

Thanks for the tip. I use a CF card (I have a 50D - previous photo was with a Canon Rebel), so will not be able to take advantage of that deal. Maybe they have other deals some times that I can take advantage of.


I buy my CFcards from
ecost.com
or mydigitaldiscount.com
depending on which one has the best price at the time..
I bought 3 more 16 gig cards before my trip to WDW last month, they were on sale for 32 a piece..

[Groucho]

I actually prefer a "whiter" look than a yellow look. Maybe I'll change my mind some time, but the yellow/gold look just yells "camera picking wrong WB" to me.

Curiously enough, though, I took similar shots at Disneyland and WDW of Main St and chose slightly different WB settings for each.

Disneyland, temp 2850, tint 0, still giving a somewhat golden look.

http://www.totalsham.com/pics/gallery/22328-4/2007DLR-157.jpg

WDW, temp 2350, tint +3.

http://www.totalsham.com/pics/gallery/34248-4/2008WDW-535.jpg

I think this shot is closer to how it appears to the eyes, but some may prefer the warmer colors. I think I prefer the cooler ones (not surprising, as the WDW shot is newer than the DL one, so it's more in line with my current tastes.)