View Full Version : Best White Balance Setting for Time Lapse


Lucky Haskins
July 16th, 2010, 10:11 PM
Just got my intervalometer and thought I'd try my hand at shooting a time lapse of the stars. This will be an adventure as I got the 7D exclusively for video and have never shot still 1 since receiving it.

The question at hand is... I know I need avoid auto white balance, so what setting do I use for WB for these night time lapse shots out in the country???

Thanks.

Liam Hall
July 17th, 2010, 05:19 AM
It depends on what you are pointing your camera at and how you want it to look. Sometimes using a WB that might be wrong if it were for a portrait can be very effective for a night shot. Why not take a few test shots before you start your TL sequence and see what you like?

Olof Ekbergh
July 17th, 2010, 06:40 AM
Experimenting is a good idea.

I would start by using 5600K (daylight). It is also a good setting for time lapse of sunsets, it will produce a very "warm" sunset.

If you use Raw, it does not matter much what WB you use. You can adjust later with no quality loss. I often use stills for time lapse instead of video. It gives you a much better image and you can move around the image in post. It is a lot more work in post, but the result is very good. Naturally it takes up a lot more space the files are big.