Fog/Night photography

[allenlennon]

Just wondering what white balance should i use?

[arith]

Take a grey card and angle it 30 degrees into the subject; actually if it is a bit dark that can be a problem and I asked the question about two years ago.

Definitely a problem since any noise on the grey card messes everything up.

Another method I do but are unsure of its accuracy is to line up the peaks in the graphs in ACR, when I use a grey card in good light the peaks sort of line up and I think it might have something to do with it, although here somebody said line up the right hand ends of the graphs, doesn't work if you expose to the right.

I always shoot RAW and so I don't know if auto white balance works, but I suspect it would be wrong anyway. My camera is always set on 5600K but I've even found a grey card invaluable when using a speedlight. Cheers Allen I'm looking forward to seeing some answers.

[drjuice]

And, in a pinch, if you don't have a gray card with you, point the camera down on asphalt (NOT newly laid and called macadam in some places) and that will get you really close. You specifically DO NOT want to have the pitch black stuff that most roads/parking lots have for the first year or so. Also, if you're living in an area where they've used some kind of funky rock (think in front of the University of Florida's football stadium where they used orange rock in the asphalt) it won't work as well.

HTH.

v

[rambler4466]

Rather than trying to get it right, I find that white balance is really more of a preference. For example, when not shooting raw , I like the look of "cloudy" almost always. When using RAW in Adobe Camera Raw, there is a white balance tool. Just click on something grey or close to gray in the image and the software will adjust the white balance. Or, you can choose from a menu of choices to get a variety of looks. Then combine your choice with the temperature and tint sliders to refine your choice. Tungsten can add a nice blue for a sunset or sunrise!

My camera has an option where I can see the effects of changing the White Balance right in the LCD. You might find your camera does, too. Check the manual.

I have also read where Auto white balance is a good selection to use at night.