I'm in Italy, doing another travelogue. This time, I've hit a strange problem. Since the last time I was here (a year or two ago), a lot of Italian cities have adopted a new outdoor street light. It's half-way between the familiar orange sodium light and the older purple mercury vapor lamp. It puts out a very bright, but decidely purple, illumination. I can't balance the color temperature to save my life -- everything is either too warm or too cool. It doesn't do any good to do a manual balance on a white target, because there is a mix of illumination from shop windows and car headlamps. This is driving me crazy because, for the first time, I can't really capture what I see.

May be able to fix it in post.

Or hold the card horizontally and point the camera down at it. Hold the card as high as possible. Perhaps on some steps.