Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

There are at least three ways. The three that I describe below require a bit of work and planning.


First, of course you can do this in camera with a single imae. By using an Xrite Color Checker Passport you can shoot two targets, one for each lighting scenario and create two camera profiles - the Xrite software will merge the two profiles into one, which you can apply to your image and each white balance correctly imposed on the corresponding parts of the image.

Another way is to create a layer mask of the foreground areas that have a cool white balance, and invert the mask and create a layer mask of the background. This way you can change all of the aspects of each of the two parts of your image independently of each other.

This image seems to work ok if you simply apply a graduated linear filter to the sky/background, and the foreground. Using that method you can adjust most of the exposure and other image settings for just the area that has been masked. It is by far the easiest and fastest method. It took me about 2 mins to do your image over. It is not perfect, and there is some bleed from the background mask and the foreground mask but by using an adjustment brush to clean up the overlap (remove the effect of the mask at a very local level), you can get there as well.

For all of these you'll need to shoot in raw, and use any of the popular raw converters - I used Photoshop and the Camera Raw filter to make these adjustments.

Unless you are comfortable with using external/remote flash and bounce materials, I would stay away from using fill flash. Most people tend to just put a flash on the hot shoe or use the built in flash, overdo it, resulting in a scene that has an undesirably bright foreground with harsh contrasty lighting and unusual reflections. This is ok if that is the look your are going for.

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Bubbee Loc: Aventura, Florida

Exactly what I was going to say!

NikonRocks Loc: Sydney

You don't say what camera gear you are using so I will use my Nikon D500 as an example of what a number of higher end Nikon camera models can do with such a situation you present. Other camera brands such as Canon and Sony no doubt have their equivalents.

With my D500 I have what is termed HDR - High Dynamic Range. This feature only works when the camera is set to capture images in JPG only. When you press the shutter release, the camera takes two shots each with a different exposure value and combines them into one shot which is the one finally stored on the memory card. The user defines via the HDR Menu whether to allow the camera to make the two exposures in automatic mode or specify the EV differential from 1EV to 3EV inclusive between the successive shots. A smoothing option is also given whereby the exposure transitions between the two shots can be applied.

Finally you can specify whether HDR is to be applied once or to successive shots that you want saved to the memory card.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

In-camera HDR is NOT going to take into consideration different white balances. Though this image could be a candidate for manual merging, especially if the camera was on a tripod. There seems to be enough brightness difference to have two exposures that can be independently adjusted for exposure,color, tone and contrast, then merged into one using Photoshop.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Layers and masking and raw capture are the tools.

Photograph the scene in raw mode, including a proper white balance target in the scene foreground.

In Lightroom Classic (etc.), eyedropper the white balance using the target. Duplicate the layer. With the first layer turned off, adjust the second layer to taste. Then do your masking, finally merging the layers to a JPEG for output.

Personally, I have no idea why multiple white balances in a scene are a problem for some people. In reality, we encounter scenes that are FULL of different lighting colors. I work to get the color right on the principal subject and let the rest of the scene fall where it may.

ecurb Loc: Metro Chicago Area

Fill flash or daylight balance hot lights or shoot at dawn or dusk when the exterior light balances intensity and color temperature to interior lighting. Did all of this back in film era.

jrm21

If you shoot RAW, the white balance setting in the camera is largely irrelevant. You can set it to whatever you want when processing the RAW file. Thus, it doesn't matter what your camera may allow, with RAW you can change the WB on each of your multiple exposures to whatever you want.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Lightroom does not have layering. But it does offer masking. Maybe Photoshop was what you had in mind, or On1 Raw or Capture One. What you can do with Lightroom is to create a virtual copy, and use a different white balance for each, then export the two images to Photoshop and merge them.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

You’re correct!

They’re so tightly integrated I just switch back and forth LrC <—> Ps. Of course it could all be done in Ps…

jcryan Loc: Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic

Darktable has the ability to work with multiple white balances. See the links below for Bruce WIlliams´ discussion (2 parts to the video) on the Color Calibration Module...

Part 1: https://youtu.be/t7H1fr0PtHw
Part 2: https://youtu.be/gEqaS9fnbkQ

... and the white balance module.

https://youtu.be/9aHQcTRnp-0?list=PLlYWvzmJQTrRq7JrYdD7k3-8-v-uHnhK_

Basically you set the white balance in the white balance module for the bulk of the photo. Then you use the Color Calibration Module to adjust masked areas of the pictures.

PhotosBySteve

Use fill flash with gel filters to compensate

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

dat2ra Loc: Sacramento

TTL.

Wallen Loc: Middle Earth

If the difference in color cast is mild, a simple fill flash to pull the colors to one side is enough to get acceptable results.

Alternatively, you can use an appropriate color filter to attenuate the other color cast, then set your white balance accordingly. Add a fill light to compensate if needed as filters tend to underexpose photos.

A conflicting color cast situation is one of the times that shooting in RAW and doing post is a need and not a choice.

Xpatch Loc: New York, Antigua, GT.

I use kelvin to my liking and adjust if needed in Capture 1.
Luckily it a relatively color mask