White balance depending on situation

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dvdguy

Hi!
This is rather noob question, which I am. Well, I searched a lot of topics and posts concerning white balance but none of them seems to fit my question. I wanna know, how do I set white balance depending on the given situation?

I heard I have to set my camera facing the wall or something as far as I remember, but I could be referring to something else. Im not sure...any thoughts are appreciated.
 
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This is for video only.

The way I was always taught was to hold a white paper (Or any other object that is white) about 8 feet from the front of your camera lens. Then zoom in on the object and white balance on that. Also you will want to focus your camera at the same time.

Make sure that your lighting is in place before you do this.
 
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You need to white balance every time you setup your camera and the lighting changes. Daylight, tungsten, fluorescent: all different color temperatures and will there for give you a different reading.

Here's what you do. Set up your shot, hold a piece of white paper or white card right where the subject will be, zoom in on the paper or card so it fills the entire viewfinder and then white balance. Once you get a reading for your color temperature then you can set up your lights based on what temperature you get. There are times when you can just put on a tungsten filter or daylight filter and light to that, you just have to know what kind of lighting is dominating. Remember to use a monitor for video-what you see is what you get, and for film make sure you use a meter.

I could go on and on about lighting and color temperatures and what is better to use when but this is a pretty good start.

FYI-you really shouldn't light it first because you may think it needs daylight lighting and it may need lighting closer to tungsten or fluorescent. Good luck.
 
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monitor? You mean viewfinder? "FYI-you really shouldn't light it first because you may think it needs daylight lighting and it may need lighting closer to tungsten or fluorescent." Dont really understand what you meant with that. And why is that Terry? What would happen if I would focus the camera at the same time? :) just courious
 
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If your white target is out of focus it will give you a faster and more accurate white balance.

Look at a white sheet of paper, it will not be a smooth flat white. The variation may be small but every now and then it could kill a shot or eat up time in post on color correction.

Terry
 
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Out of focus is correct, for a constant white. In focus will show the grain of the paper (if paper), indents, shadows, etc. of whatever you are shooting, and those change the color.
 
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Ok I'll try that! I have to experiment more and more to get the hang of it ( in different temperatures) :) I hope I get the right color for my upcoming project though.. Thanks a lot for now! helped alot
 
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I balance per lighting change when I can but, in specializing in reality, I can't afford to miss a shot because I was messin' with the camera. I often use preset and fix it in post.
 
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For different environments there are different color temperatures. Daylight is closer to like 5600K and tungsten is closer to like 3200K and then there are variations of different lighting. You may look at a setup and go "Oh, that looks like it is going to white balance at 6000K." Then you set up HMI lights or Tungsten lights with full CTO and then white balance. After you white balance you think to yourself "Wow that color looks way off." In reality if you would have white balanced first you would have noticed that it temperatured out at 3900K. And you could have just lit for tungsten balance. Does any of that make any sense? Lighting is a whole different world. So start getting your hands dirty and come back and ask more questions. I'll be here to answer, along with hopefully a few of the other people of the forum.
 
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What is CTO? And does 3200 K refer to dusk (time od day)? And what did you mean with:" Oh, that looks like it is going to white balance at 6000K." not sure (hmm). Well, I dont wanna be a burden with the questioning so I'm gonna try different things and see how that goes :) I have to learn from experience though. I'm just not sure HOW to start with lighting, I have a a 500Watt light, what else do you recommend to try out?
 
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