As I read thru the net, I was reccomended to turn off the auto white balance, and use white balance A or B. If I do this, what am I exactly doing? And when I want to set the white balance between a shoot, do I literaly put a white piece of paper infront of the camera before I start shooting? I'd appreciate if someone can explain these things to me.
white balance on xh-a1
- Thread starter MelonDome
- Start date
IF you are shooting in manual WB, you find the whitest of the white thing in your shooting environment and balance on that. Then check your footage. I would really like to hear how others handle this--finding the whitest thing in your environment or bring a white card along. I suppose if there isn't something white, you need a white card because that will tell the camera how much and degree of saturation of light is being reflected. Hmm...I will have to test that.
You should also be turning off your auto gain as well and be shooting in manual. I noticed that if you are shooting 60i (and someone mentioned this in an earlier post) 1/60 shutter speed seemed to look the best with varying aperture sizes depending on how the stage was lit--since all action was dancing, it was usually between 2 and 4. You will also get incredible blacks if you do this. The best thing I can say is to get out and practice with your camera--and take notes on your settings and then compare and contrast your footage.
The last thing I shot: 2 identical performances Saturday and Sunday night. Saturday manually did the settings (everything was just like your eye saw it in a dark theater--Sunday, put it in on Spotlight--Spotlight actually looked pretty good (everything was a little brigher) for most of the dances but not the hip hop where they all had white on it. Their clothing reflected too much lighting and it was over-saturated--but for most people still looked great. In manual, it was perfect. The blacks, unreal.
Tony in Duluth
You should also be turning off your auto gain as well and be shooting in manual. I noticed that if you are shooting 60i (and someone mentioned this in an earlier post) 1/60 shutter speed seemed to look the best with varying aperture sizes depending on how the stage was lit--since all action was dancing, it was usually between 2 and 4. You will also get incredible blacks if you do this. The best thing I can say is to get out and practice with your camera--and take notes on your settings and then compare and contrast your footage.
The last thing I shot: 2 identical performances Saturday and Sunday night. Saturday manually did the settings (everything was just like your eye saw it in a dark theater--Sunday, put it in on Spotlight--Spotlight actually looked pretty good (everything was a little brigher) for most of the dances but not the hip hop where they all had white on it. Their clothing reflected too much lighting and it was over-saturated--but for most people still looked great. In manual, it was perfect. The blacks, unreal.
Tony in Duluth
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This could be a case of the seeing impaired leading the blind. White balance is a really big deal, and you should take some time to understand what it does (i.e. how you can use it to control the color balance of your image, or at least use it to get correct color balance), you should understand how to set it, and you should add it to your pre-flight list for shooting (i.e. check it every time, like you do other important settings).
The Canon XH-A1 has pictures in the manual, but there are 3 steps to setting manual white balance. You must switch the "AWB" setting to "off" (AWB=auto white balance). You must select "Pre", "A", or "B" under "White Bal". If you pick "Pre", you select one of 2 presets (daylight or tungsten) under the LCD viewfinder. Finally, if you pick "A" or "B", you must set them at least once, as they are saved for future use.
To set the white balance, fill the entire camera frame with a white card or other white surface. Adjust the light (iris) so the white is not too bright, but is well exposed. While keeping the well exposed white surface completely filling the frame, press and hold the button to the right of "White Bal" That has a dot sitting between two wedges. (again, the manual has pictures)
In addition to having your white card filling the frame and properly exposed, you should have it in the light that will be illuminating your subject. That is the point of white balance; different light sources have different "temperatures" or color balance. It would do no good to white balance your camera outside, then go into a building to shoot. You must set your white balance in the same light you will be shooting.
There has been a lot written about white balancing. You may want to do some more reading. What I wanted to give you was the Canon XH-A1 specific part.
Doug
The Canon XH-A1 has pictures in the manual, but there are 3 steps to setting manual white balance. You must switch the "AWB" setting to "off" (AWB=auto white balance). You must select "Pre", "A", or "B" under "White Bal". If you pick "Pre", you select one of 2 presets (daylight or tungsten) under the LCD viewfinder. Finally, if you pick "A" or "B", you must set them at least once, as they are saved for future use.
To set the white balance, fill the entire camera frame with a white card or other white surface. Adjust the light (iris) so the white is not too bright, but is well exposed. While keeping the well exposed white surface completely filling the frame, press and hold the button to the right of "White Bal" That has a dot sitting between two wedges. (again, the manual has pictures)
In addition to having your white card filling the frame and properly exposed, you should have it in the light that will be illuminating your subject. That is the point of white balance; different light sources have different "temperatures" or color balance. It would do no good to white balance your camera outside, then go into a building to shoot. You must set your white balance in the same light you will be shooting.
There has been a lot written about white balancing. You may want to do some more reading. What I wanted to give you was the Canon XH-A1 specific part.
Doug
WB
Doug,
WAY better than my sorry explanation. Thank you. I will be more thorough in the future and wedgy me if I am wrong.
Tony
Doug,
WAY better than my sorry explanation. Thank you. I will be more thorough in the future and wedgy me if I am wrong.
Tony