White Balance neglect.

Foggy · Oct 19, 2013

Having really ramped up the amount of time I spend using my GH2 recently due to filming a short for my degree,I have realised that I have been neglecting to pay attention to my white balance.With so much to think about and so much to remember I always forget to play with the settings and my camera is perennially on the auto white balance setting.

Is it ok to leave it on this setting?Will it give me at least decent results?It isn't something I have massively looked into despite being something I do understand the principles of.

Cheers.

harmonica44 · Oct 19, 2013

Personally I think it's best to choose a white balance, rather than just leave it on auto cause if you do that, the camera will deside your color temperature for you, and it will not be locked, so it can change while shooting even, and it's noticeable.

baoliun · Oct 20, 2013

It is not ok. Auto exposure depends on your camera,it will shift throughout scenes or completely destroy the look you are after. Filmmaking follows a simple rule - Garbage In, Garbage Out. It is sort of "ok" if you shoot raw,cause it is metadata,yet I still think it is lazy and non pro attitude toward work.

Ideally you should purchase a grey card,colour card or some more pro alternatives. This will be much more precise and easier for editor/grader

IndiePaul · Oct 20, 2013

I use one of these and can recommend it - note: it's one card with 2 colored sides, not two separate cards:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/330874-REG/Lastolite_LL_LR1250_EZ_Balance_Grey.html

And watch these excellent videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zya_8TBvctY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-o5xif361x0

ChimpPhobiaFilms · Oct 20, 2013

If done properly, manual white balance looks better. If you don't have time for that, go with the presets. Presets are used when you have little time at a certain location.

Cracker Funk · Oct 20, 2013

I often use presets, and it's a really bad habit I'm trying to break. Inevitably, I'm always correcting white balance in post, and there's no telling how badly that's screwing up the rest of my coloring.

Anything other than manual is a bad idea.

jax_rox · Oct 20, 2013

Auto White Balance is generally not a great idea as it usually doesn't give you the greatest results.

Many people advocate using grey or white cards.

Personally, I like to dial-in the colour temperature in-camera. Now, a lot of what I shoot these days does end up going to a colourist, but even the stuff that doesn't, I will dial in a temperature - indeed, most cameras I work with do not allow any other type of white balancing other than dialing in a temperature.

The reason I'm a fan of this is because you sometimes want to be at a white balance temperature that isn't 'correct'.
You might have a door to outside that you want to look cooler, so you set your WB lower. You might want your interior scene to look a bit warmer (as I often do) and shoot interior scenes at 4100K instead of 3200K.
You might want your daylight to look a bit warmer and shoot at 7000K (as I've done in the past).

Or you might have mixed temperatures in the scene, and want the tungsten lights to look orange and the daylight lights to look blue, and therefore set your temperature in the middle.

All creative choices, and all of them are correct if they suit the story and the image, even though 'technically' they might be incorrect.

I haven't used a WB card in many years.

harmonica44 · Oct 20, 2013

Cracker Funk said:
I often use presets, and it's a really bad habit I'm trying to break. Inevitably, I'm always correcting white balance in post, and there's no telling how badly that's screwing up the rest of my coloring.

Anything other than manual is a bad idea.

Yeah presets don't seem to be as accurate I've noticed.

I am also with Jax rox on dialing it in manually. I worked on a scene shoot two weeks ago and the DP forgot his white balancing cards, and he freaked out saying that the scene will be ruined now, and he needed time to go get them. I asked him if he could just dial it in manually, and he said he could but it will not look as accurate, since the sun looks different everyday, and he needed the exact custom white balance, of the current sun. If only he just believed in dialing it manually instead of having to remember to bring cards.