First test outside at -15C/5F and a white balance question

K

kidstick

Member
I used my camera outside for about 2 hours straight and before i used it, the camera was already outside for an hour. I didnt see any problem, exept the focus ring that was a little bit harder than usual. The zoom ring was perfect, no problem with lcd screen and any of the buttons/fonctions. The battery didnt last shorter than usual. Iam very impressed, I was scared a little bit cuz its my first camera and I bought it to shoot skiing action.

The only real problem for me now, is the snow. I dont really know what to do, Ive done my white balance on the snow, sometime the snow was i little bit blue and every thing(iam talking about the color) around it was ok. Then sometime, the snow was really white, but the pines around was not green they were kinda brown. i wonder if someone had this trouble with whitebalance with snow and can help me.

PS:Sorry for my english, I speak french.
 
You should be fine white balancing either on a cloud or in the snow, just keep in mind that if you white balance in shade, everything in the sun is going to become more red/orange. This could be a reason why your green trees are appearing brown.

On the otherhand, if you balance in direct sun, your color temperature is going to be warmer and everything in the shade is going to appear more blue. I would use your A/B white balance switch to hold a white balance for both direct sun and shade, and then switch accordingly. If you can't do that, then you have to white balance primarily for the light that your subject is in. You could try for a happy medium if you can't change it on the fly, somewhere around 6500k.

As far as exposure is concerned, the camera is only going to be able to maintain detail in the highlights up to a certain point before they clip and become pure white, regardless of color balance. This is a tricky shooting situation simply because the snow and the sun present a very wide contrast range and video cameras have always struggled to keep up with this range.

My suggestion, aside from exposing for the subject, is test some footage using the DRS function of the camera. This should help quite a bit in contrasty situations like yours, but keep in mind it will also add a bit of noise to the image. Again, test and retest until you find what works for you.
 
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yep yesterday I was filming whil it was snowing and the focus ring was a bit stiff, but it worked ok.
 
Just shoot on preset and color correct after... at least you know all your footage will match.
 
Attic6; IMHO, it is much better to white balance on location and do little or no post CC. My experience shooting stills for 30 years is (if skin tones are important) manual WB is the way to go.

Re. WB: I have not shot in snow, but I believe that white balance on a known reflector is preferable to using the snow itself as the reflector. I am a stills photographer, and I ALWAYS use a card whose properties I know to set WB. Snow can be blue-white in shade as someone mentioned, and red-white in afternoon sun---and if you are being picky, it changes subtly all day, too.

If manual WB is not practical in your circumstances, then choosing a preset will at least have the advantage Attic6 mentions, and the changes I mentioned will be accurately tracked by this approach too, minimising CC time. 2¢'s worth.
 
If you are shooting interlaced use the DRS at 2 or 3.

For progressive, set the knee to low.

If you are having extreme contrast and too dark shaded areas, turn the master pedestal up, say to +5, and see what you think.

I would not use the auto iris, but set your exposure manually.

With a little tweaking, it works great. Be sure to set up a snow preset when you get it right.


Like others said, MWB as needed. In most NLEs, the primary color corrector works wonders on HMC-150 footage. You can get it perfect later.

Give us a sample of the footage!
 
Merci for the information. Good to know the camera works in very cold conditions.

Has anyone tested the camera in tropical heat and humidity yet?
 
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