How to get Night photos to look white?

[SD70MAC]

Hello all,
I notice that when I take night photos 99.9% of the time theres always a yellow tint to them like this one

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=95851

How can I get it to look white like this?

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=94501

Thanks a bunch for any help.

[StL-rail]

If I'm not mistaken, I believe it has to do with the types of lights that are used to illuminate the area. Just like there are some street lights that look orange, and the other kind that's a brilliant white.

[4kV]

Ryan, if the area is lit with HPS lights (High Pressure Sodium), the picture will turn out yellow. HPS is the choice of many municipalities now, and they are common. HPS gives off a yellow light. Mercury vapor and metal halide lights give off a white or blue/ white light, at least to the human eye. These are also common, though many entities have changed them out in favor of HPS.

Incidentally, if you take a picture with your digital of an HPS light, the light will look yellow. Take a picture of a merc light, and it will not come out white, but a green tint. The light given off by mercs is mainly a blue, green, and yellow. I don't know a lot about digital cameras, but apparantly the green registers on the sensor, the others do not as well. I know this by taking photos of lights at night. I'm sure someone else out there could explain it much better.

[nordicus]

Not that hard to remove yellow cast. Auto Color and then work on the color balance in the mids and highlight going from yellow to blue.

[SD70MAC]

Thanks for the info on the lights! And wow that picture looks alot better. Looks like next time i will have to play around with it in Photoshop. Thanks everyone.

[rpalmer]

Hello all,
I notice that when I take night photos 99.9% of the time theres always a yellow tint to them like this one

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=95851

How can I get it to look white like this?

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=94501

Thanks a bunch for any help.

As I recall, you just bought a D-Rebel - right ? Look up White Balance setting in your manual. There are white balance settings that compensate for artificial lighting and will give you the desired result without having to play around in Photoshop.

[busyEMT]

Also, isn't there a filter that would counteract the HPS or otherly tinted lights?

[Ken Carr]

R Palmer

Hey thanks for reminding him, I totally forgot I could do that with my Canon300D....lately I really need it....thanks....Ken

[SD70MAC]

Thanks...problem is I cant ever seem to find a white enough object close to where I will be taking the photo to set the white balance.

[railfanzone]

Ryan-

That's where shooting RAW will help - you can adjust the white balance afterwords in the computer. I'm not sure if you can set a custom white balance at the time you're shooting (I know the 20D can, not sure about the D-Rebel), but if you can, get yourself an 18% grey card. Shoot a picture of that (fill the frame with the card) and use that as the custom white balance picture. That should help you get rid of the color cast of the lights. A pure white piece of paper will also do instead of the grey card.

-Tom

[CN/NECR]

Well,guys
When i take night shots( I haven't doe so with trains)but on my camera,I have a preset white balance I use.Tungsten light..I find it takes away the yellow in yellowish lights and makes it white,but if you were to use Tungsten in daylight, the picture would look blue,So I find useing Tungsten is a big help for shooting at night in yellow light!

Take care all..

[E.M. Bell]

As RP suggested, try adjusting the White Balance on your camera. The cannons have several setting besides auto and that should help a lot. It took me awhile to figure that out on mine, but it will make a differnce. Also, you can make minor adjustments in PS to compensate for the yellowish or green tints.

Another hint for good night shots, go to http://www.download.com and search for a program called "NeatImage" Its a free download and the program helps to clear up a lot of the digital noise thats common when making long exposers with DLSR's. It makes a BIG differance!!

[SD70MAC]

Thanks Folks! I really appreciate all the help. Im going to try some of the suggestions on here and see if I can go out tonight and try some night shots out in the snow! Should look pretty cool if i can pull it off. Thanks again.

[SD70MAC]

Well I set the white balance on my camera and I got these results! Definetly looks better with the white balance set.

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=95952