Yellow Cast at Sunset

[AJ Witt]

Yesterday, I was out shooting some surfers about an hour before the sun went down. Looking at the pictures this morning, I noticed the pictures have a golden - yellow cast, which was caused by the setting sun. I have also noticed this while shooting models, landscapes, etc at the same time of day. Now I know we all want that sweet light, and I thought it was the sweet light, but this cast is stronger than desired. I should mention that I was shooting with a Nikon D300 on Auto WB and have also noticed it on my D700 with Auto WB.

Of course I can fix this in post, but I was wondering if there is a way to combat this in-camera?

Any insight anyone can share would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[Alan Melle]

Sure, you can combat this in camera. Don't use auto WB. Set the WB more towards a tungston (incandescent) setting. You may need to experiment a bit with the setting to get the balance you want. Just remember to reset the WB later!

[Desmond Chan]

The color temperature of the light around sunset (and sun rise for that matter) changes very fast (compared to that in other time of the day). Whatever WB setting you use likely won't give you consistent results anyway. I'd suggest leave it to auto and fix those that you don't like afterwards.

[Craig Markham]

AJ, that setting sun can really heat up the colors, as you have discovered. If you shoot RAW, you can optimize your WB when you process the image. I shoot RAW most of the time, and usually avoid AWB, so that I can control the WB setting myself instead of having the camera be the judge. Using a consistent, fixed WB setting allows me to roughly compare results in the field, and when I edit the session, I can batch adjust the WB for whole groups of images, rather than have to mess with each one because of a shifting AWB.

If you're shooting JPG instead of RAW, making large adjustments for WB during editing sacrifices image quality. For JPG's, you just have to estimate and experiment in the field during each shooting situation until you get your WB in the ballpark. Of course as the sun rises/sets, WB and brightness change by the minute -- another great reason to use RAW, so you don't need to continually futz with the WB while you're trying to get "the shot".

Craig

[Marc Mol]

The color temperature of the light around sunset (and sun rise for that matter) changes very fast (compared to that in other time of the day). Whatever WB setting you use likely won't give you consistent results anyway. I'd suggest leave it to auto and fix those that you don't like afterwards.

Agree with Des here, no matter what WB setting you have IN camera it will needed to be tweaked&adjusted to suit the constantly changing lighting conditions, which is why I always leave it on AutoWB and adjust later in ACR.
This is of course for those that shoot RAW.;)

[Charles Glatzer]

As mentioned the color temp changes rapidly at dawn/dusk. Color correct one image in the sequence and then apply Sync or Batch color correction to the other images taken at the same time.

Tip - you can visualize and alter the WB n real time using Live View; set the WB to degrees Kelvin and rotate the dial until the image on the LCD appears as desired. This will get you quickly in the ball park. You can further tweak as necessary in post-production.

Chas in Nairobi

[Daniel Cadieux]

Tip - you can visualize and alter the WB n real time using Live View; set the WB to degrees Kelvin and rotate the dial until the image on the LCD appears as desired. This will get you quickly in the ball park. You can further tweak as necessary in post-production.

Chas, this is one of those "why didn't I think of that?" type techniques!! Awesome tip...