Outdoors at night

St Stephens

Fluorescent: 4100, +38

This image was taken in a shopping centre using the fluorescent setting giving a slightly pink tinge. It was taken from the same spot as the coffee shop images used in the previous task; however the colour cast is slightly different. This is due to the direction of the shot, facing down into the large shopping centre below which uses different lighting.

Kids in a car park

The two shots below were taken in the same car park, under the same lighting with white balance set to automatic. The first image, taken at values 4150K and +1 tint came out green. (3950 +32) The second taken at 4950K and +40 tint has an orange cast. (3950 +39). For both shots, I was standing in the same spot but changed the direction I faced towards the subjects. I am unsure what exactly has made the camera choose two different settings in such similar lighting but I have a couple of ideas.

One is that the second shot was taken in the direction of the entrance to the shopping centre. If the lights in the centre were a different type of fluorescent to those in the car park, this could have affected the result.

The other thing I notice is that the hues of both colour casts are opposite to the clothing the subjects are wearing; the image containing pink clothing has given a green cast and blue has given orange. I would have thought that the colour of the lighting would have a much greater affect on colour casts than anything else but a large amount of colour in an image could be a factor. I have changed both images taken in RAW to the settings I feel give the most true colours. These are, in the first image 3950K +32 and for the second 3950K +39. This shows that the required settings for both images are very similar, yet the camera’s white balance meter had read the scenes very differently.

Car

In the same car park I took a quick shot as my family were getting into the car. I have included this image in my study because of the wide range of colour casts displayed. The pillar is green at the top and pink at the bottom, the car merges from green on the right to pink on the left and the top of the car, brightly lit from above has a green cast. The outdoor lighting appears very orange compared to the subjects under fluorescent lighting.

The automatic setting chosen was 3500K and +28 tint value. I have taken these separate areas and attempted to create the correct white balance for each. To reduce the pink areas, I slid the tint value to +15 and the temperature remained the same. Leaving the temperature again, sliding the tint to +50 has omitted the green cast from the right side of the car. In order to remove the orange cast from outside the car park, the temperature also had to be adjusted. The wall outside looks white to me when the temperature is moved to 2550K and the tint reduced to +7. This setting has created a strong blue colour cast inside the car park. What I have noticed in this experiment is that the different fluorescent lighting may be made up of different colours but the temperature remains the same.

Arcade

Another scene I discovered with mixed lighting was an arcade in the city centre. My camera recognised the fluorescent lighting and set the white balance to 4000 with tint at +13. At this setting, the outside street lighting looked very yellow. In order to reduce the yellow, I reduced the white balance to its lowest setting of 2000, making the lighting inside the arcade appear very blue. The outdoor lighting, however didn’t seem to show any blue even at this very low setting. I suspect therefore, that the street was lit using the sodium lamps described in the course book. This type of lighting contains no blue, therefore cannot be completely corrected.

Marina Floodlighting

Auto: 3550, +43 – Corrected: 3100, +37

In this image, the statue is lit by fluorescent lamps; however this is mixed with the intensely coloured light of the setting sun. The golden sunlight is reflected on the back of the statue, giving an orange cast throughout. The sky, which I remember to be almost black, appears purple in the image. To correct this image, I reduced the temperature and tint slightly to remove the orange cast, from the front of the statue. Although the purple sky is not as I remember it, I think it provides an interesting contrast to the orange sunlight.

Auto: 3550, +44 – Corrected: 3300, +43

Moving round the side of the statue, only a small part of the setting sun’s reflection is seen on the back of the lady’s head and the lower part of the sky shows a faint purple hue. The colour cast is slightly green, when removed; the purple in the sky is enhanced. Although this purple light was not noticeable to the naked eye, it is obvious on both images, more so when the shot is taken towards the sunlight.

Auto: 5000, +19 – Corrected: 5550, +18

Running around the marina, my son found some interesting fluorescent lighting coming up from the ground. The image of my son was taken close to the ground with the lights showing in the image. As a result, my camera, set to automatic white balance recognised the colour of the light and worked accordingly.

Auto: 4000, +17 – Corrected: 5250, +24

Using the same lighting, I took a shot of my daughter standing up, placing her further from the light. This made a difference to the white balance my camera set as it picked up other lighting in the area. This image required greater correction than the previous shot.

Auto: 5000, +4 – Corrected: 5150, +6

This hotel sign which my daughter chose to pose with was also recognised as fluorescent lighting and again, as a result of the light source being in the image, my camera was more able to select the correct setting.

Market

I got the chance to experiment further at a Christmas market in my hometown. The street lighting provides a yellow cast; giving the man a slightly menacing appearance and making him look like a film villain.

The orange colour cast from the café lighting creates a warm, inviting feel to the image. The contrast provided by the cold, blue-lit Christmas decorations serves to enhance the inner warmth.

Saltend

Exposing for the sky, I took this image of the evening sunset. It would be impossible to achieve correct exposure on both the foreground and the sky; however this is of benefit as the darkness of the silhouette enhances the bright sky.

A different affect is produced however in this image of a sunset over the Humber. The reflective nature of the water reproduces the colours of the sunset producing an entirely pink and purple image, only broken by the solid boats in the river.