Surfers in Lahinch

I tend to try to get things right in the camera when I’m taking photographs.  It’s a good habit to be in, and a good mindset to have for things like wedding photography.  But there are more selfish reasons to  get it right in the camera too – namely the time and effort saved in post-processing.  So it’s kind of funny that I would end up really liking a photo that I got wrong in the camera – at least in one respect.

The photo above is one of three I took in relatively quick succession last Sunday afternoon as I strolled along the seafront in Lahinch.  There are things about the photo that I got right in the camera.  The composition was quite deliberate for instance.  The beach was actually quite busy, and I chose the composition so as to isolate the surfers from the others of the beach to give the illusion that it was much quieter.  The timing is also quite deliberate – not only in terms of the surfers walking past an area of wet sand that would reflect them and their boards, but also in my desire to capture the front and rear members of the party in mid stride with a carefully timed press of the shutter.

What’s not deliberate – and the thing that I got wrong in the camera – is the white balance.  I inadvertently had it set to Tungsten (not the usual Auto that I tend to use – about the only Auto setting I use on my camera).  That’s because the previous photo I took was that of the 1970s style bedroom in the Atlantic Hotel the previous night – a room that was lit by tungsten light.  I mentioned yesterday that one of the challenges with that photo was getting the white balance right, which I eventually did in post-production, but in my attempt to get it right in the camera I switched from Auto to Tungsten.  And forgot to change it back.  Until just after taking this photo.

At the time I didn’t mind the white balance being off as one of the benefits of RAW is being able to change it in post production.  But a benefit, on this occasion, of getting it wrong was that it gave me an image I would not likely otherwise have created – and totally changed the mood of the scene.  All of a sudden, with a tungsten white balance on a grey skied day, the scene goes a wintery blue and feels more like January than June.  And I really like it.

For the sake of comparison the “correct” white balance (or at least close) version is below.  Looking at both together, perhaps there’s a happy medium between the two.  But I still like the in-camera version at the top.