When is it necessary to set White Balance?

ProfD

ProfD

Well-known member
Hey guys...

I'm trying to get a feel for how often and under what conditions the more experienced DVX100A users set and reset their White Balance? If Shutter speeds are changed, would this necessitate a White Balance check or reset?

Any tricks or professional advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Prof. D.
 
I believe it is in Barry's book or posted here in a thread . it was recommended to white balance every 20 min because the Sun moves and therefore the light changes . even if you change location it is recommended to white balance . I have gotten into the habit of W/B when i change shutter speed as well . When we did our zombie short ,everytime I change location even if it was only 20 ft away I'd W/B , overkill maybe . There were times we sat on the edge of the shadow and the sunlight , then into the shadow . It only takes a few seconds to W/B .
I'm no expert so maybe one of our resident experts can offer some tips as well .
 
Every time the light changes. it takes just 5 seconds, so it doesnt hurt to do it very often.
Shutter speed is unrelated to white balance.

Anyway, the dvx manual suggests to blackbalance every time you switch to cinemode and viceversa. And when you blackbalance you also white balance.

Andrea
 
The answer is whenever what you see on the monitor does not look like what you eye sees. Forget the every 20 minute scenario, etc. That will have you WB dependent and its a bad habit and frankly the sun does not change it's color temperature enough during the regular day to make a difference. Any subtle differences are usually corrected in post, not relied on in the field. Outside try a 5600k preset and indoors try the 3200k preset. If those two don't look correct then manually white balance. We balance to tell the camera how to see light. Your brain adjusts it for you automatically. Cameras can not. I always try the presets first. Nine out of ten times outdoors 5600k is perfectly fine and you need nothing more than preset. Same goes for inside. If inside things look very orangy then try a manual white balance. And if outdoors they look a bit blueish, try a manual white balance. BUt probably the first rule is use the two presets depending on whether you are indoors or outdoors and 90% of the time you will be fine.
 
Walters above post jogged my memory from when I was on the set of Zombie Night 2 .
I never saw the camera men W/B at all ( DVX) , maybe they did and I never saw it ..One scene was to take place near dusk and as the time ticked by the sun slowly went down . as the cameras were right in front of me , those guys never W/B at all . All I heard was hurry up we are loosing light here . So Walter maybe correct here .
I can only speak from my experience when doing my zombie short . If memory serves me correct there were only 2 occassions W/B didn't make any difference but the rest did .
 
Presets are ok.
But to garuntee correct white ballance, you need to WB enytime that something has changed (lightsource, sun-attitude, time, etc...)
Baisc rule of thumb, every time you pick up the camera (in handheld) you shoudl hit the WB button. If you can't remeber when you took a WB, then do it again.
Auto is just th ecamera guessing, and the presets are you just guessing for the camera. a manula While ballance is the ONLY way to tell the camera what White actually is for any given situation.

- Mikko
 
This is exactly what I teach folks not to do. One thing determines white balance, what you want to achieve and if that is what you see on a monitor. If not then you white balance. To say white balance every time you pick up a camera might not be what you meant to say and it can be confusing. If you are shooting a scene you white balance once for that scene.
 
Walter,
I know what I meant to say.

The aim of white balance is to produce a correctly colored image that will match anyother footage shot for the production in question.

The way it works is this: White should be white.
- Unless you purposfully mean to have it otherwise (Eg: opening scenes in the wizard of oz)

There is nothing wrong with setting WB more often than not.. it won't hurt your image. What can hurt it is not dooing it often enough when you realize that yoru colors are off.

As for white ballance cheking: there is exactly one tool for this job: a Vectorscope and a color calibration card.

- Mikko
 
I see what you are saying now. No there is nothing wrong with WB more than less, just don't get addicted to it. As for WB checking, a vector-scope is not going to tell you anything your eyes on a monitor can't. That sounds extreme to me.
 
No, i dont' WB every 5 secconds.. but i'd still advise to err on the side of caution.

However as far as scopes go.. the human eye sees light, especially colors, very subjectivly (with our own WB infact) a scope (waveform, or vector) is calibrated to a fixed scale, and therefor absoloute. Overkill for most shooting? Sure. But it is also THE definitive word in video measurement.

- Mikko
 
yes but we don't use vectorscopes for such things. We use them to set up signals and tell us if saturation is over but for seeing white balance it's useless. That's where a good monitor comes in.
 
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