Basic White Balance Question

[The Norm]

Hi!

A simple question I'm sure somebody will know the answer to ...

If I'm shooting in a room with a significant amount of daylight coming through a window and am using a set of redheads as lights, do I white balance with the lights on or just with the natural light?

Thanks in advance guys.

 

[chilipie]

It depends how you want it to look. If you white balance using a daylight preset or while the lights are off, the window light will look white and the light from the Redheads will look very orange/yellow. If you white balance while the lights are on, the window light will look a bit blue, and the Redheads will seem a bit orange/yellow.

If you want all the light to appear white and not tinted in any way, you'll either need to put Colour To Orange (CTO) gel on all the windows, or put Colour To Blue (CTB) gel on the lights.

 

[Cracker Funk]

Hi!

A simple question I'm sure somebody will know the answer to ...

If I'm shooting in a room with a significant amount of daylight coming through a window and am using a set of redheads as lights, do I white balance with the lights on or just with the natural light?

Thanks in advance guys.

If you white-balance with just the natural light, you're going to get an orange-ish hue coming from your lights. If you white-balance with them on, depending on where in the room you decide to white-balance, you're either going to get the same orange-ish hue from your lights, or a very noticeable blue tint from the windows, or perhaps a mix of both. I know a few weirdos who like this aesthetic -- I think it's very off-putting.

If your light-sources aren't matching, you can use gels to make them match. Purchase full blue CTB gels, put them on your inside lights, and they will match sunlight.

 

[The Norm]

Thanks guys!

Much appreciated.