I have a question about white balancing in mixed light conditions. I always have trouble with where to place the white balance card to get an accurate reading from the different light temperatures. Please take a look at the attached 3D animatic that the director generated which gives a an idea of how he wants it lit.
We are shooting against a green screen sound stage - turnkey style sound stage with the screen lit by a 3200K light source, so the talent will probably be lit 3200K as well. I know the director favors 3200K for skin tones as well.
SHOT 02: The subject in a darth vader mask will have a Tungsten 3200K key with red rim lights. I’m assuming I should set the white balance to 3200K, correct? Since the key light is 3200K.
SHOT 03: The subject’s key is 3200K, but we might have 5600K daylight as the rim. So should I still white balance to 3200K since the Keylight is tungsten? IMHO, I would place the white balance card in front of the subject where it will mainly pickup the 3200K light source and disregard the 5600K rim lights.
Shot 10: This is tricky for me. The subject will be front lit by a BLUE light saber after turning it on. Let’s just say the key and fill before the light saber goes on, is 3200K. Should I just have the white balance card lit by the light blue light saber and take a reading that way? Or should I just leave it at 3200K since that’s the light source before the blue light saber goes on?
Like I said, I have a hard time figuring out where to place the white balance card in these mixed light situations, so I’m hoping to just dial in the number.
Should I always place the white balance card where the talent is facing the camera, even though it might only pick up the key + fill light and not the rim lights?
Is the general rule to white balance to the dominate light light?
