To white balance or not to white balance? That is the question?

I took some pictures of a local production of the Nutcracker in which my daughter has a couple of parts. I am quite happy with the photographs, but on some I am unsure as to wheather to apply WB or not. I do know that it is a matter of personal taste, but what do you guys generally do with theater photographs? Here's an example. Which one would you choose? (The first photo has been adjusted for WB.)

Thanks.
~Dom

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

i think the top one is better.

Dom,

I prefer the first one, it's warmer than the second.

I'd do it on an image by image basis I think. Very often, the strange stage lighting colour casts can add to the image and can be a nightmare to colour balance because of the various light sources.

What do you mean, whether or not to apply white balance?

If you don't set a white balance yourself, the camera will apply its own guess. Either way, some sort of white balance will be set

I like the first one. The magentas in the second are too strong.

linarms wrote in post #6878137
I like the first one. The magentas in the second are too strong.

+1

although I'd hesitate to ask people over the internet, because it's very probable that we've all got monitors calibrated differently/not at all, from where I'm sitting the top photo is more neutral and the bottom is too magenta.

Thanks for the replies. I had my camera set to tungsten, but throughout the performance the stage light colors were changed. I guess I was usure wheather I should try and recreate the colors of the stage lighting, or adjust the WB (or color casts) with a little PP.

~Dom

IMO , "whitebalancing" is useless in stage lighting with all sorts of gel colours. you need to process your photo how you envision the shot.

#1 is much more natural looking

datadump wrote in post #6878295
IMO , "whitebalancing" is useless in stage lighting with all sorts of gel colours. you need to process your photo how you envision the shot.

Ditto that. If they were lit by a magenta spotlight then taking that colour cast out will not be "correct". Having said which, it is of course purely a matter of choice as to which you prefer.

Electric Shepherd wrote in post #6880790
If they were lit by a magenta spotlight then taking that colour cast out will not be "correct".

You are right, taking out the color cast from the magenta spotlight would not render an accurate representation of the original scene. However, if I were selling these pictures to parents of the performers, I'm not sure if the more accurate representation of the print (or any other for that matter) would sell as many copies of the print with color casts removed.

~Dom

This weekend, I shot a HS play, I shot it in M, raw, no flash and AWB. In the past, I had tried different WB settings but found that AWB gave me the results I liked with the differnt color lights.

First one better his shirt is accurate and not purplish IMO .

I agree with a few of the others that the second one may be more accurate to what was actually in the scene but the first one seems more balanced and to me I like the way it looks better than #2.

@ the OP: Was it actually a Magenta follow spot or a white one? Considering the brilliance it looks as if it should be white.

Assuming the magenta colour is correct, my personal approach would be this. If the photo is to be shown as part of a series, with different colours as the lighting changes, it would be OK to leave it without tweaking the WB. If the image is intended to be viewed alone, I would certainly correct it.