Golden hour - White balance ?

I recently photographed a friends partner posing with his car. I chose to time the shoot about an hour before sunset (due to what I'd heard about the light) and that the area we'd chosen would not be in use.

It was a fun session and the images looked great on the back of the camera. However in post, all the images have a "golden" cast, that although I like the warming colours, I'm having trouble getting realistic skin tones.

So, when shooting portraits in late sun, what is the trick? Should I have shot a white/grey card and set the white balance off of that ? (the 7D was set at AWB) or is there another preferred method?

Lawrence

Fill flash on the model ,with out flash the subjects are going to be flooded with the sunset glow ,you could process the shots twice with two different white balance,s and blend together

kingsown wrote in post #15913702
you could process the shots twice with two different white balance,s and blend together

as long as the "flash moment" has gone for you, this is a great suggestion.

Fill flash - damn, and I had two remotes with me although due to the volume of natural light I chose not to use them.

Thanks for the pointer - I'll endeavour to remember for next time.

Lawrence

i personally never liked fill flash in golden hour unless it was gelled with CTO. daylight balanced flash looks off mixed with warm temperature sunset/sunrise light.

Tweak your color balance.... Post a sample here and I would like to work with it. However, I can't be sure I would tell you my workflow....

That's why the call it the golden hour. This is generally a good thing.

If you are using fill flash, you have to CTO it, or end up with a very unnatural look.

abacus022 wrote in post #15919870
That's why the call it the golden hour. This is generally a good thing.

I agree - the softest light is almost always the best light. I usually set my white balance somewhere between 3800K and 4600K when shooting the golden hour.