White balance help

Steve

Steve

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I took some photos in town at night of my daughter.

The lighting was mixed...fill in flash, street lights and lights from shop windows.

I should have taken a grey card but I didn't, so I shot in RAW hoping to rectify any WB errors in PP.

But now in PP I'm really struggling to get the WB right. Is there a shortcut to getting it right in PP? Something like taking another photo of my daughter and getting WB right and then applying that somehow to the other photos?

Or do I need to just do it manually until it 'looks right'?
 
I usually do my PP in Lightroom so I just pick the dropper up and select an area of white. Then I just tweak it a bit if I don't like the result.

I've also bought myself a cheap knock off expodisc white balance lens cap. I use this more than I thought i would and I find it easier to carry around than a grey card. You just pop it over the front of the lens, put the WB into the right mode (this will vary according to camera) and then take a photo. It was < £3 and it must be my best photography bargain to date.
 
You are expecting much to get a good WB from a mix of sodium, flourescent, neon, tungsten and flash!

It may be possible, but a grey card will undoubtedly give you the best results.

I regularly shoot products in a mix of daylight, led and halogen but I always use a grey card. Even then, I have on ocasion forgotten to turn off the ambient flourescent lights and I then have a problem getting it right.
 
^this.

You can only white balance for ONE light source per image.
 
Nice link that Gr8Shot

Those white balance lens cap things, i got one from some Chinesse seller on ebay who sent me the wrong thing. I was a bit annoyed at the time and threw it in a draw, a year or so later i actually started to use it and have found its real useful!
 
Thanks for the advice
 
Have ordered one of the white balance lens cap things to ensure I'm not without one.

I don't have Lightroom so can't try the adjustment there.

I'm resticted to doing it in Nikon nX2 software and I'm close to giving up trying to get the WB right...think it's a case of staring at the screen for too long, so nothing looks right.
 
If you have multiple light sources, you can only ever correct for one. Go for the main subject light, and if that's flash, simply set white balance to flash or daylight and you'll be there.

Including a WB reference in the image helps, but that only makes it easier - it won't make different coloured light sources magically the same.

Popular trick when using flash in tungsten indoor light (orangey-yellow, most common) is to fit a CTO gel over the flash so it more closely matches the tungsten. Then when you correct for one, they're both right.
 
Easily done.... Make it B&W :)
 
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