Context: I took some photos with friends. It was evening and we were inside, only one weak light on. Possibly incandescent bulb but I didn’t check. Going by memory it was quite dark (I went up to 6400 ISO…) and the light was very warm.
Now here’s my problem. The camera had set the color temperature at around 2900/3000 K. The photos were IMO too reddish.
So I tried adjusting it with Lightroom’s “eye dropper”, selecting a wall as reference for “white” (Not my house, but I think it was white). Temperature went to about 2400K, but they were now too cold and the photos’ joyous atmosphere vaporized. We were celebrating and having a poker with alcohol, yet they now looked like photos taken in a morgue…
I don’t think there was something objectively wrong, but the feeling is not the one I had while shooting them. Nor the one I wanted people to have while looking at them.
I manually changed the photos to about 2650K (didn’t touch “tint”, only “temperature”). They didn’t look too orange, but at the same time they didn’t feel depressing. I think it was the best compromise I could get.
How do you guys do it? I’m no professional so I went by feeling. What would you have done in this case? Should I have left Lightroom’s auto choice, despite the “morgue effect”?
P.S. Shooting RAW with a Nikon D3500, in case it matters.
Auto white balance under artificial lights is often still hit and miss.
My old 6D would especially struggle with warm artificial light. Pictures usually came out super warm.
When I noticed after a couple of shots that the temperature looked odd I’d usually took out a white handkerchief and I’d hold tight in front of the lens while setting the wb manually. There are special wb cards you can buy but a hanky works too