Do most of you use it, or do you not bother since movies aren't suppose to look that realistic most of the time anyway? If don't go that realistic, then how do you decide your white balance for which lighting conditions? It's personal preference of style but what do you people prefer, out of curiosity?
How many of you prefer custom white balance?
- Thread starter harmonica44
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You always, always, always white balance.
As far as presets versus an auto-white, those are great. On a dslr or camera that when in auto adjusts the white every take, a set and defined color temp is a must.
As far as presets versus an auto-white, those are great. On a dslr or camera that when in auto adjusts the white every take, a set and defined color temp is a must.
But sometimes using incorrect ones can add to the style, no? Like for example, if I use white flourescent light balance, while shooting a scene with halogen lights, it gives the scene sort of a dark brown-ish stylistic touch, which might be good for suspense scenes.
Setting it to tungsten, under flourescents though make people look green and sickly I find though.
Setting it to tungsten, under flourescents though make people look green and sickly I find though.
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Trying to color an image through white balance is not a great practice. BAck before NLE was readily accessible, it made more sense. Now, all it does is take away options.
Similar to shooting black and white. If you are 100% absolutely sure that you are going to release in black in white, shoot it in color (in the digital world, film is different). Why? Even if you are really sure about something, you never know what's going to happen down the road. Also, more control. Having color data gives you the ability to select a color and raise or lower it's brightness which could make or break a black and white shot.
It's a simple color option in post to simulate what an off white balance would do. If you have a look you like, it's ok to switch to it to preview then back to the right record settings for recording. Our DP often switches between the Cinestyle profile (what we shoot in now 98% of the time) and a custom profile that's closer to what we grade. He get's the idea of what the shot will look like, then jumps back to the correct shooting mode.
Another problem doing it in camera, you won't be able to match that look across light spectrums. It may be cool making an indoor shot a little blue, but going outdoors you might realize you can't get that same blue, then you have fluorescent lighting and your not even close to blue.
Make everything white and correct, add the color in post. When you're more experienced, add color to lights on set, paint walls and adjust wardrobe. For now, make it white.
Similar to shooting black and white. If you are 100% absolutely sure that you are going to release in black in white, shoot it in color (in the digital world, film is different). Why? Even if you are really sure about something, you never know what's going to happen down the road. Also, more control. Having color data gives you the ability to select a color and raise or lower it's brightness which could make or break a black and white shot.
It's a simple color option in post to simulate what an off white balance would do. If you have a look you like, it's ok to switch to it to preview then back to the right record settings for recording. Our DP often switches between the Cinestyle profile (what we shoot in now 98% of the time) and a custom profile that's closer to what we grade. He get's the idea of what the shot will look like, then jumps back to the correct shooting mode.
Another problem doing it in camera, you won't be able to match that look across light spectrums. It may be cool making an indoor shot a little blue, but going outdoors you might realize you can't get that same blue, then you have fluorescent lighting and your not even close to blue.
Make everything white and correct, add the color in post. When you're more experienced, add color to lights on set, paint walls and adjust wardrobe. For now, make it white.
Yeah okay I'll do that then. So what type of white balance should I use when using halogen lights? I am guessing of course, I should use flourescent for flourescents.
I don't agree with this. Footage from DSLRs can only be tweaked so much in post until it starts to fall apart. If I know the exact look I want for the finalized project I'll shoot with it it mind, and then perfect the look in post.
As far as color temperature, you can get interesting looks. It all depends on what you're shooting. For instance, set the color temp at 4500k and you can have warm orange light coming from streetlights contrasting with a blue moon fill light. It doesn't work for everything, but it can be helpful to achieve certain looks.
When using halogen lights, Pick the indoor or outdoor preset that gets you closest to what you expect to see (you do have to train your eye through repetition), then adjust with gels... I know that halogens will throw a little blue, so you can either use the outdoor preset with just a touch of CTB gel on it to get it to the "right" blue... or you can set it to indoor and throw some CTO on it to get it to the "right" orange.
Shooting flat is a really good practice... unless you don't plan to do any grading... the point of shooting flat is to capture as much data as possible from the scene... and darkening is free
It's lightening that kills your image. Shooting flat generally leaves you with an image that looks too light... but if you shoot for your final look and miss, you've got no options than to lighten your footage (which is not to say it's a wrong way to shoot -- I just prefer doing trapeeze with a net below me).
Shooting flat is a really good practice... unless you don't plan to do any grading... the point of shooting flat is to capture as much data as possible from the scene... and darkening is free
It's lightening that kills your image. Shooting flat generally leaves you with an image that looks too light... but if you shoot for your final look and miss, you've got no options than to lighten your footage (which is not to say it's a wrong way to shoot -- I just prefer doing trapeeze with a net below me).
I use a custom white balance taken from a grey card (or white balance card depending on which school youre from) in the center of my shot. I get a more accurate color tonality across all my shots this way versus using the presets on my camera. I think the different modes (cinema, flat, etc) tint the white balance presets?
Thanks, but what does shoot flat mean? I still have to choose a balance, there is no 'flat' option.
flat is for the exposure, it means to set your camera so that you're not getting the blacks too dark, nor the highlights too white. The image may look a bit washed out and gray in camera, but once you color correct it, all of the washed out look goes away... it's just to guarantee you've captured as much light data as you can for the latter stages of the color process.
Oh okay, thanks I wished I had known this for my first short. I did see on the camera that adjustment but I felt it was probably best to keep everything in the middle for my first. But now that I know this how far up should I set my flat?
flat isn't a setting in the camera in this case... it's a series of them.
The black/pedestal should be slightly higher to have the camera record darker tones a little lighter. The saturation is reduced slightly so nothing overpowers the CMOS/CCD (chip).
Exposure is carefully set to protect both the highlights and shadows while keeping the subject very near the correct range of exposure.
The resulting image from these adjustments looks "flat" due to the blacks not touching true black and the saturation being slightly lowered.
The black/pedestal should be slightly higher to have the camera record darker tones a little lighter. The saturation is reduced slightly so nothing overpowers the CMOS/CCD (chip).
Exposure is carefully set to protect both the highlights and shadows while keeping the subject very near the correct range of exposure.
The resulting image from these adjustments looks "flat" due to the blacks not touching true black and the saturation being slightly lowered.
This.
Relatively flatten a RAW image, but with anything else and you need to start the image in camera (using lighting) and avoid having to push the final image past the limits of the compressed source. I'll even take that further, and suggest that one *should* have a strong sense of the final look, if not a look that's been tested setup beforehand.
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