cinematography White balancing to gels

A

afaloth

What white balance setting should the camera be set to if a tungsten light has a CTB gel over it, should it be set to tungsten (3200k) or around 5200k, or even just AWB. If so, or if not, why is this? Or in this circumstance would manual white balancing be better?

Sorry if I sound a bit confused, not an expert in this area haha! :cool:
 
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If using full CTB it should theoretically be 5600k, but seeing every tungsten bulb isn't exactly 3200 and gel can vary a bit, not to mention if you're dimming it'll change some, go with what looks right. If 5200 looks best, then there you go!
 
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Cracker Funk said:
I don't know why everyone is against manual white balancing? Can't get more exact than that.
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I, for one, am more used to traditional film - 5600k or 3200k. Pick one and gel your lights accordingly. Even on an Alexa or Red, you have to dial in the colour temperature, rather than just being able to manual white balance. Therefore I tend to stick around 5600k or 3200k, or sometimes vary depending on the effect/look I want.

Even with DSLRs it's much more difficult and time consuming to have to take a picture and all the rest of it, than just pick a setting, or dial in a colour temperature. It also means that I can set the colour temperature to whatever I want - 5600k to make 3200 lamps warm, or 4300k to make the daylight a little cool and the tungsten lights a little warm. It's all creative choice, and manual white balancing can at times be much more time consuming, and also difficult to get exact colour temperatures - ie, If I want to balance to daylight and make my lamps go warm, I can WB outside. Except, what if it's an inside scene? Do I now have to setup a light, and gel it, just to colour balance? What if I want to balance to 4300k? or 4800k?

That said, unless you really do understand colour temperature, and/or have a large collection of gels at your disposal (they ain't cheap ;)) you'll be better off manually white balancing. Also, for documentaries, reality, TV and ENG in general, it can look better.
 
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Thanks for the info guys, I think I understand it a lot better haha

The only problem that I have with manual white balancing is that I don't have one of them neutral grey cards or whatever they're called. I've tried using just a white sheet of paper but I don't know whether that has worked at all not much seemed to have changed from the settings on the camera haha

What is the best way to do it?
 
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Ideally you get some variety of white card, or something that's "true white" so that you don't introduce a subtle color cast into your footage, but in a pinch paper, or posterboard will do. It should ideally be held back around where the action that you're filming will be, and should be exposed as bright, but not clipped in the whites. If you're using non-corrective ("party") gels, then I recommend removing them before you balance, and replacing them immediately thereafter. The white card should be focused on and zoomed into so that it takes up roughly 2/3-3/4 of the image, including the center of the shot.

Balancing controls will vary from camera to camera, so from there it's important to read your manual, and function the controls appropriately, but the first paragraph should get you ready TO balance.
 
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I dial in the temp. Start at the number for the type of lighting (say 3200 for Tungsten or 5600 for sun) Then I may dial up or down a few hundred degrees. I can't believe I'm saying this, but really, "close" is good enough. You're going to (or at least we are) go through every shot and tweak the WB as part of the color correction process anyway. You don't want it crazy off (balanced for Tungsten in daylight), but as long as you are in the ballpark it's fine.
 
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Why are you gelling the light? To match another light? If so, set your white balance to that light that you're trying to match (i.e. the sun). If the tungsten is a motivated light from an interior, dial it back to a 1/2 CTB and let it stay a little warm, your skin tones will look healthier and the color will suggest lighting of screen from a tungsten fixture.

If not, and you white balance to the light you've gelled, you undo the gel and the exercise becomes pointless.
 
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