White Balance on Dark Rides

[mSummers]

Does anyone have any tips for getting the white balance right on the dark rides? ;

The last time I was at WDW (my first trip with a DSLR), all of my dark ride shots came out with a strong red-orange color cast that I couldn't remove in post. ; In case it matters, I was shooting with a D2Xs on Auto WB. ; Since then I have upgraded to a D700. ;

 

[Craig]

I've been shooting rides on auto WB.
Rides are the one time when I do shoot raw.

My d300 has way better white balance than my d80. That should compare to your d2x to d700 upgrade path also?

 

[Craig]

NIght Time White Balance at WDW tip

I have had great luck my past two trips shooting WDW at night using manual white balance of 3200-3500 K white balance settings!

I have done no formal testing, but I seem to get nice natural colors when shooting this way.

 

[WDWFigment]

You're getting the red-orange cast on all dark rides? ; I've really only experienced it on PotC and maybe one or two others (nothing comes to mind off the top of my head). ; To remove the PotC cast, decrease your saturation of the reds and oranges after adjusting the temperature (go as cool as you can). ; All of this can be done in ACR.

This is one of the main reasons I always shoot in RAW. ; I look at WB as more of a creative thing than getting it "right". ; To me, a lot of the times a technically incorrect WB looks better than the correct one, so it's nice to change them and see what I prefer in post. Additionally, I'm too lazy to set WB for each situation while shooting. ; I'm going to be doing post processing for any shot I post anyway, so why not take the couple of seconds to adjust WB in post? ; (I know, somewhat of a contradiction--I'm lazy when shooting but not when editing...more like I'd rather do shooting as quickly as possible as I have other pressing priorities at WDW. ; In front of the computer, I can screw around and tweak things longer).

 

[Roger]

I use A2's dropper on a white or gray item in the scene...that usually gets it close. ; Then I'll adjust the color temperature sliders. ; Works good enough for me.

Been much better on digital than film ever did, esp. on POTC.

 

[mSummers]

My d300 has way better white balance than my d80. That should compare to your d2x to d700 upgrade path also?

I'm hoping that is the case.

You're getting the red-orange cast on all dark rides?

Sorry Tom... ; I didn't word that statement well. ; I said that I was getting that on all of my dark ride shots, but I forgot to say which rides. ; I had that trouble on PotC, HM and parts of SSE. ; I forgot that the white balance was only slightly off in American Adventure, Country Bears and Great Movie Ride, but I was able to correct those in post. ;

I always shoot RAW so that I can correct things in the computer if I need to, but I prefer to get it right in the camera so I don't have to spend as much time on the computer. ;

 

[mSummers]

I use A2's dropper on a white or gray item in the scene...that usually gets it close. ; Then I'll adjust the color temperature sliders. ; Works good enough for me.

That's sort of what I do in Capture NX2. ; I set a black point on every image and set a white point when there is one in the image and then I adjust the WB only when necessary. ;

I'm beginning to think that my problem was that the D2Xs just wasn't that good at reading the WB on those rides. ; ;

 

[Paul]

I use A2's dropper on a white or gray item in the scene...that usually gets it close. ; Then I'll adjust the color temperature sliders. ; Works good enough for me.

Been much better on digital than film ever did, esp. on POTC.

Identical to what I do in Lightroom; shoot RAW!