Question: Can Color Temp Be Used to Quickly Adjust for Changing Light Conditions?

D

Denniscasey

Well-known member
Outside of studio there are many situations where subject is in a different light than where camera is located. For instance, on sunny day you are in full sun but distant subject is in shade (different light and you can not white balance camera using light subject is in).

In that situation I have read about or have thought about following solutions:

1. Zoom in on distant scene and use ATW to let camera use shady light as its white balance reference? On face of it this sounds like a good option but I have not always been happy with results.

2. Some cameras have "pre-set" light condition options such as "cloudy sky," "shade," "sunset" to attempt to let you adjust for color temperature more suitable for light subject is in

Then in reviewing Barry's HMC book again I was reminded of Color Temp setting (p. 106). Two basic questions: (1) Is this setting an option to use in situation I described and; (2)if so how would I effectively use it?

A. Can you access Color Temp by some quicker method than going into Scene File if it could be used like I am wondering about?
B. What correlation would some of you who have used Color Temp assign to "Shade," "Cloudy Sky" etc--for instance, would a plus 4 setting get you close to color temperature a subject in "shade" would be in --this correlation would just help one get close to right setting? I would then fine tune the setting to accurately reproduce the color from light subject is in (as near as I could tell from looking at 5 inch external LCD I have added to my accessories).


Again, these questions just pertain to situation where subject is in a different light than camera (me) am in and I can not have subject hold a white card (or there is no white in scene) to manually white balance on. Thank you, Dennis
 
The color temp setting can warm up or cool off a manual white balance. You can't use it to directly say "well, at -4 it will work in a cloudy scenario" or something, because it depends on what the basic underlying manual white balance is. If you had white balanced for daylight, and use a +7, then you'll end up with a very very blue image. If you had white-balanced for tungsten, and then used +7, you might end up with something that's about daylight color temperature. So it's relative to the underlying white balance.

Now, assuming you had a white balance set, and you decide that it's starting to look a little too blue, you could go into the menus and start dropping the color temp setting down a notch or two to compensate, and in a case like that, it would pretty much do what you're describing. But, it's not quick to get at in an HMC40. There is no way to get at it other than by using the menus. You could establish two settings ("normal" and "warmer" maybe) in the two scene file positions, but that's really about the only way to speed up the process, and that'd only really give you one alternative setting...
 
Barry_Green said:
The color temp setting can warm up or cool off a manual white balance. You can't use it to directly say "well, at -4 it will work in a cloudy scenario" or something, because it depends on what the basic underlying manual white balance is. If you had white balanced for daylight, and use a +7, then you'll end up with a very very blue image. If you had white-balanced for tungsten, and then used +7, you might end up with something that's about daylight color temperature. So it's relative to the underlying white balance.

Now, assuming you had a white balance set, and you decide that it's starting to look a little too blue, you could go into the menus and start dropping the color temp setting down a notch or two to compensate, and in a case like that, it would pretty much do what you're describing. But, it's not quick to get at in an HMC40. There is no way to get at it other than by using the menus. You could establish two settings ("normal" and "warmer" maybe) in the two scene file positions, but that's really about the only way to speed up the process, and that'd only really give you one alternative setting...
Click to expand...


I did not initially understand the key point you pointed out, Barry---Color Temp setting is relative to the manual white balance you have just established.

Is there another way to address the situation I asked about besides using Color Temp setting adjustment--i.e. I have white balanced in bright sun, but now see an inaccessible distant scene I want to capture that is in shade (different color temperature)?
 
Not really... I mean, you could maybe store a general daylight balance in Ach and a shade balance in Bch but at that point you're almost better off trying ATW and seeing if it works for you.
 
Barry_Green said:
Not really... I mean, you could maybe store a general daylight balance in Ach and a shade balance in Bch but at that point you're almost better off trying ATW and seeing if it works for you.
Click to expand...

Thanks Barry. As a compromise I have tried zooming in on the shady area (in my example) and giving HMC40 time to do its best automatic ATW white balance , see what that looks like, and then locking that white balance setting for more filming of the shady area. The few times I have tried that it at least gives better results than leaving white balance on the bright sun setting based on where I am standing. Dennis
 
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