AF100: Setting the Green / Magenta WB manually, display auto selected WB Kelvin value

[Luc Desjardins]

Hi everybody!

Recently I tried to match up the white balance between DIY LED panels and regular Daylight / Tungsten lights, within my AG-AF100.

This proved to be impossible for two reasons:

1 - As I could manually set the Kelvin portion of white balance (From Blue to Red), I could not set the Magenta to Green color balance setting (hue, chroma phase).

The DIY LED panels I was given for testing were very blue, but also had a clear Magenta hue, which I could only correct using Auto White Balance (Chroma Phase seems ok for fine tuning, but lacking for serious color balance settings).

This would be fine if I only used those light, but when it came to match it with other color temperatures, another problem arose:

2 - When doing auto white balance, I could find no way to see what Kelvin setting the camera picked, neither could I see what Magenta / Green balance setting (hue, chroma phase) was selected neither.

Because of that, It was impossible for me to guess how much CTO stops to use to filter the blueish hue of the LED Panels to a normal 5600K (for example), and furthermore, it was also impossible to know how much Plus Green stops I would need to filter out the Magenta hue.

But maybe the AG-AF100 can't really help me in such "advance" filtering and white balance matching.

Is there a specific tool that exist to precisely measure the color profile of a light, so as to know how to filter it to daylight or tungsten, and so as to know if I need any plus or minus green, and how much?

I certainly hope I am making sense, since it is not the easiest problem to explain.

 

[spotts]

You need a true 3-color color temperature meter. They're not cheap but a must have for balancing lighting. Minolta makes a good one. The camera is the wrong tool to use for this.

 

[hscully]

I think the problem you are trying to solve is with the light and not the camera. CRI is the reason the reason the commercial brands of LEDs are so expensive.

I think you could create reasonable workarounds by testing, bringing it into your NLE and eyeballing , then testing again. Don't try to get the camera to compensate or help you choose filters to manage your light. You don't have "parametric" color adjustments in camera and I don't think you really want that. Maybe choose a typical 3200K or 5600K setting in an appropriate location (e.g. daylight in a day lit room, incandescent at night) Shoot, look, adjust until you know how to match them. I hope you're able to get good results.

 

[Bucknfl]

Try half minus green gel on your LED lights.

 

[David W. Jones]

I would start with a 1/4 minus green gel.


As a side note... I keep a complete set of easily transportable color correction gels on hand for just such things.

At only $7 a sheet everybody working with lights should keep a set on hand.