White Balance

[Mick Mearman]

I'm having trouble setting a reliable white balance, I have to video a playgroups activities for a DVD which the parents have, I have to film in available light which is daylight through windows, I set a manual balance using a white card which sometime looks a little blue when set, I also get the opposite sometimes when flesh tones look rather orange, I think it could be something to do with a blue carpet which could be reflecting blue on to everything or could it be the Panalook preset.
I have used the daylight preset which seems better but I'm used to setting my own.
Any ideas please?
Mick

[Allan Black]

Yep Expodisc, great for mixed lighting wouldn't be without it. There's more in the archives here.

BTW you didn't load the Panalook preset manually did you? I tried that early on and stuffed it up. 2 of those settings 'names' are very similar.

ExpoImaging - ExpoDisc Neutral

Cheers.

[Gabe Spangler]

Mick, I would just go with the daylight preset (5600K) and color correct to taste in post. As long as you shoot everything at 5600K, you can copy and past the same color correction filter to all your clips. Going overboard with white balances and different white balances during one shoot causes editing nightmares, in my opinion. Good luck.

[Will Mahoney]

I shoot product videos, installations, and car shows for JC Whitney.

Unless I'm in my studio with controlled lighting, I don't white balance. I am moving around too much and capturing too much to be messing with white balance all the time.

If I'm indoors, I'll set it to the "indoor" setting. If I get too near some windows or an open garage door and the sun starts to effect my lighting, I'll tweak the balance, or switch to the "outdoors" setting.

Outdoors, at a car show, with changing sunlight all day...I'll manually set the white balance multiple times throughout the day by pointing at various "white" things. (T-shirts, signs, white parking lot lines, etc.)

People like to use specific white balance cards to get "correct" white balance, and they scoff at my idea of using a white t-shirt, or a sign, or even a white car. Hey, if I look at something and my eyes tell me that it's white - that's good enough for me, and good enoug for my camera.

Oh, I usually use Panalook and tweak in post (crushing blacks, pushing whites, tweaking saturation.)

Cheers!

[Roger Van Duyn]

I'm like Will. I carry a white balance card, but will manually white balance using anything reasonably close to white. Changing light sources can be a real pain, but you learn to deal with it. Sometimes you can just change your camera angle and problems go away.

Work with the light as much as possible.
At times you may have to do some color correcting in post. I usually don't need to do much of it. Manual white balance with available white t shirts, ceilings, etc works well with my A1. At times I even have been known to go automatic.

[Allan Black]

I knew of a guy who shoots weddings and always wears a white shirt. He white balances off the sleeve and drives the single women nuts.

Cheers.

[Sylus Harrington]

When you white balance from misc objects in the scene, do you still fill the frame with white?

[Roger Van Duyn]

Yes. By all means fill the screen. Basically, do it like it says in the manual.

[Matthew Nothelfer]

Originally Posted by Mick Mearman

Any ideas please?

I manually ride the color temp using the K (Kelvin) control knob. I eyeball the scene on the LCD and adjust accordingly. Once you get good at it you can do it fast enough for run and gun style shooting.

Anyway, that's what I do. White cards? I don't bother. Essentially I do a little color treatment "in camera." If I want a little blue, I'll go that way, if I want it warm, I'll go the other.

Best invention ever on modern cameras: control over K setting. I used to have to push or pull the color temps warm and cool by white balancing through 1/4 or 1/2 gels.