White Balance

[Matthew Jackson]

I have a warm filter on the front of my lens and the ND filter on most of the time. Will this effect my white balance? In other words should I set white balance first then add filters later?

thanks!
MAtt

[Dale Guthormsen]

Matthew,

This is actually a good question!! I never thought about it.

I have always had my filters on when I set white balance and I have had good looking footage having done it that way.

Very curious to hear what the guys with huge experience have to say about it!!!

[Chris Barcellos]

I'm guessing that if you have a filter that is changing color temperature (like a warm filter does), you better apply it after the white balancing is done. Otherwise, I would think the balancing would reduce or eliminate the effect. I'm curious what the regulars will say too. But check this guy out on filter use in digital stills which should be the same for digital video, I would think:

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/filters.htm

[Josh Bass]

Yes! Absolutely!

That's the entire point, actually, is to warm up your already existing color balance.


White balancing attempts to neutralize an impurity in an area of your picture that's white in real life by shifting the entire color spectrum accordingly, right? (example: you have bluish looking light coming into a room, let that light hit a white piece of paper, white balance on said paper, remove the unwanted blue cast from your image)

So, if you white balance AFTER adding your warming filter, you're taking the warming effect out.

[Terry Shaw]

White balance first and then add you filters. Doing it the other way around
will cancel out your filters, making them just dead weight.

Terry

[Matthew Jackson]

thanks!! I will start doing it that way.