Please teach me right about white balance and setting the HMC150.

[Deer Film]

Hi and good day.
I love my HMC150 and have had it for many years. But there is still so much I need to learn.
Is there a video or post you know of how to set up things the proper way. I might be doing things wrong.
Basically I might film a interview or conference.
Questions I have.
Proper way to set up white balance?
Do you use a white card or white foam board. And the proper way to set it up.
If there are windows in the room after you set up your white balance, and the sun light in the room changes while you record, does this affect anything? I will sometimes shoot all day events.

Do you set manual focus?
I set up mine for autofocus because the speaker moves around, and I am using 2 or 3 cameras. So I am not there every minute to monitor.

What else would be needed to setup in the camera?

Audio is not an issue.

thanks for your time and help.

 

[edinc90]

If the room has mixed lighting, like overhead florescents and windows, you should set up your white card so that it gets both sources of light hitting it. That way the white balance will get a middle ground between the two. Color temperature of the sun shifts throughout the day, from around 5600k to sometimes 2000k. It haleps to continually set the white balance when you can.

The focus depends on what you're shooting. If it's a speaker standing at a podium, manual focus. If the speaker is only moving right and left (and especially if the camera is wide) you can still use manual. If you're away from the camera and the speaker tends to change distance from the camera a lot, then auto might be the way to go. I personally never use auto-focus, most of the cameras I use don't even have it.

You should also set your exposure. Turn on Zebras at 80%, and adjust the exposure until you see some zebras in only the brightest places. For a face, the forehead and nose are usually the first places to blow out.

 

[Deer Film]

For HMC150 Pro guys, are you using white cards, or do you use a light meter? I read many posts going both ways.
I don't want to waste my money on something that I don't need.

I heard when you put your white card in front of the camera, it is best not to be in focus, and to fill the whole frame with your card. So if I film a conference, and I am at the other end of the room, maybe 15 to 30 yards. During set up, would you bring the camera over to where the speaker would be, do your WB, then keep the settings and return your camera back to where you will film. As long as you are in the same shooting lane?


Right now I am doing a lot of testing with DIY white balance cards that I made from paint samples from Menards.

 

[Barry_Green]

A light meter is not used when white balancing, so that's irrelevant. It can be used to set exposure, but even then I'd argue it's largely not used in pro video shoots, the waveform is far more useful than a light meter for a video camera. And yes, I use a CamWhite white balance card, although in a pinch I've certainly made use of sheets of paper or even a white t-shirt, white car, white building, whatever was nearby when my white card wasn't available.

As far as using a white card, focus doesn't matter, the only thing that really matters is that the card must be in the same light that your scene is in. You don't hold the white card up in front of the camera! You put the white card IN THE SCENE, and then zoom in on the card to fill the screen.