How to set the white balance manually when shooting night scenes

When shooting city night scenes, the setting of white balance is very important. At night, incandescent lamps, fluorescent lamps, mercury lamps and other artificial light sources with different color temperatures are often used in urban streets and other places. Different settings of white balance will have a great influence on the tone of the picture, especially when shooting with automatic white balance. Due to the change of composition and different light sources, the tone of the picture will change greatly, and it is difficult to obtain the ideal tone, so it is best to set the white balance manually when shooting at night.

If you shoot a night scene under a street lamp, it is best to set the white balance in sunshine mode in order to get a warm tone effect. Because the sunshine mode emphasizes the warm color of orange under this light source condition, the picture has a fairy-tale dreamy atmosphere, which is much better than the automatic white balance shooting.

When shooting night scenes, set the white balance to incandescent mode. The white balance will control the red tone of the light, and the picture will become cold tone, which can basically reproduce the original color of the night scene.

Similarly, you can also set the white balance to sunshine mode when shooting various shapes of lights in streets, squares in front of shops and other places at night. Sunshine mode can emphasize orange, make the picture warm and make the atmosphere at night strong. If you shoot in incandescent lamp mode, the warm color of incandescent lamp will be controlled, and the picture looks a little pale and lacks the atmosphere of night. The light picture taken in automatic white balance mode is very clear, but the atmosphere at night is weak.

In addition to shooting street scenes, people often shoot people in the background of street scenes. When shooting people at night, the first thing to pay attention to is what kind of light source the subject is in, and set the white balance correctly according to the light source. Generally speaking, when shooting people at night, the white balance is basically set to sunshine mode, especially in winter, the picture will be warmer. If it is set to incandescent mode, although people's skin color and clothes color are normal, the picture is slightly cool. If the automatic white balance is set when shooting people under electric light source, the picture will have a little red tone, and the automatic white balance will automatically adjust other light sources in the background, so the tone of the whole picture is relatively gentle.

When shooting the night scene with mercury light, the white balance should be adjusted to incandescent light mode, with green tone as the main tone, and the sky and fluorescent lights in the picture are blue tone. Therefore, if you want to emphasize the cool color, set the incandescent lamp mode with white balance under the condition of mercury lamp lighting source, and the picture effect is remarkable. If the automatic white balance mode is set, the green tone of the mercury lamp will be controlled, and the picture will be slightly yellow, lacking the unique atmosphere under the illumination of the mercury lamp.

In addition, before nightfall, you can set the white balance in fluorescent light mode, so that the picture can get magenta tone, and the picture has a strong dusk atmosphere.