There's a light at the end...

... or... more fun with the white balance to rescue a 'no time for photographs' day!

[finished image on my [url=http://www.blipfoto.com/entry/1390910]Kinda Horrigans[/url] journal]

This was taken in aperture priority, spot metered for the light areas and with the ISO at 400 because of it being 'not great light' but wanting to keep the noise down. All a recipe for a really high contrast shot. Then, the RAW file. Here, I didn't want 'real' with the white balance. The glow or orange lights wasn't what I was after - I wanted a crisp dark blue so the temperature was set to 2000 and the tint put to +20. Lastly, clarity - that was maxed out at +100.

In Photoshop, I used a 50% neutral grey layer set to overlay blend mode to dodge and burn various areas such as darkening the top right hand corner and the number plate in the centre and lightening the reflections and part of the kerb leading into the shot.

Reduced the noise, sharpened and saved.

Tip of the Day:
Someone asked me about the thought process behind shots the other day and I think the answer is that it comes down to your own personal style - this article talks you through how to find yours and gives you a couple of things to think about in the process!