Sodium vapor streetlights are known to be quite troublesome for photography. You might enjoy this article on a cinematographer’s insights into broken spectrum lighting. https://www.provideocoalition.com/mysteries_of_color_and_light/. You may find those gaps in the spectrum are difficult to overcome regardless of the temp slider's range. However, there are some post processing techniques and workarounds that might help in this case.
The color temperature range available in the Basic panel is sufficient for the vast majority of conditions. However, if you need more power for global color control, open the Tone Curve panel.
- Under the chart, click on “RGB” and select the color channel of interest.
- Click on the white line and drag up to add more of that color or down for its opposite. (Red and cyan are opposites, as are green/magenta and blue/yellow.)
- The adjustment can be concentrated in a certain area of the histogram by clicking on the white line to add control points. (Right click on an unneeded control point to remove it.)
The Tone Curve panel is very powerful; often a light touch is all that’s needed.
If a particular color is overpowering, you might try desaturating it or making other adjustments in the HSL panel.
If these techniques are not enough, you might try a B&W conversion.
If you can reshoot, try manually setting a pleasing white balance at time of capture. Another alternative could be to add flash, perhaps with a gel to better control the color temp. Depending on what you’re shooting, that may not be practical for getting accurate colors. But you might get some creative results, and as the stoics say, the obstacle is the way.
To learn more about the science of color and the physiology of its perception, I recommend Vision and Art, The Biology of Seeing by Margaret Livingstone.
I would love to see what you are working on; perhaps you can reply with a link to your images. I wish you great success with your photography!
