White balance on the run

I remember in the early RED days that it was common wisdom to shoot in the 5600 range because that sensor worked best that way, which ushered in a mentality of always light interiors to 5600 that I found strange. It's more logical now with so many LED instruments being at least bicolor, including practical bulbs for lamps etc., but I still tend to shoot with the prevailing color temp that would generally exist in a space, i.e. 3200 for night or windowless residences that would normally be lit with practicals/ceiling fixtures.
 
CharlesPapert said:
I remember in the early RED days that it was common wisdom to shoot in the 5600 range because that sensor worked best that way, which ushered in a mentality of always light interiors to 5600 that I found strange. It's more logical now with so many LED instruments being at least bicolor, including practical bulbs for lamps etc., but I still tend to shoot with the prevailing color temp that would generally exist in a space, i.e. 3200 for night or windowless residences that would normally be lit with practicals/ceiling fixtures.
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Yeah, that makes total sense. With my Komodo CT isn't an issue, but slog3 is so damn finicky with CT it seems like for every hundred K you're off it's X time in your NLE correcting it.
 
IMO, if you've used a lot of Canon cameras - and now the Komodo - the FX6 is a difficult camera to grade.

When's the Nikon RED coming? :sneaky:
 
scorsesefan said:
How do you guys custom WB when you're solo run and gunning? I usually use a gray folding disc, but it requires me to have an assistant or place the disc down somewhere (propping it up) with the same light I'm balancing for. I've tried one of those white balance filters and found it wildly inaccurate. Thoughts?
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For very R&G situations - and specifically if I'm shooting footage that I don't get to grade / color / edit but have to dump immediately after the shoot, then a white or grey card (or warm card) is always in my camera bag.... I have one of these....


And also still have a small set of Doug's Vortex cards that go with me:
www.vortexmediastore.com

WarmCards White Balance System

For professional camera operators and videographers a normal white balance is rarely acceptable anymore. The WarmCards White Balance Reference System is a sophisticated set of white balance cards that make it easy to get a warmer (or cooler) white balance, and then to keep the modified white...
www.vortexmediastore.com www.vortexmediastore.com

Lastly, and this is more a plea to the deaf ears of Sony engineers.... but why oh why can the little a7sIII mirrorless of mine allow to me to select a tiny of portion of the frame - using the dial or joystick on back of camera - to choose a custom WB, while the bigger, more expensive, "cinema" grade camera's not do the same???
(or someone please tell me the Venice or Burano can???)
 
markfpv said:
Lastly, and this is more a plea to the deaf ears of Sony engineers.... but why oh why can the little a7sIII mirrorless of mine allow to me to select a tiny of portion of the frame - using the dial or joystick on back of camera - to choose a custom WB, while the bigger, more expensive, "cinema" grade camera's not do the same???
(or someone please tell me the Venice or Burano can???)
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Alexas do this, the WB capture by default is a box in center of frame.

Most of the time I find myself using the white balance feature is when shooting under existing lighting where we'll be matching our sources to that, like funky LED in a warehouse or supermarket (don't see too many fluorescents these days). Once we've got the camera reading neutral, we'll often point one of our lights at the card while protecting it from the practicals, then dialing the color temp and g/m of the light to neutral using the vectorscope as our guide. This gives us a setting to share amongst our units.
 
markfpv said:
For very R&G situations - and specifically if I'm shooting footage that I don't get to grade / color / edit but have to dump immediately after the shoot, then a white or grey card (or warm card) is always in my camera bag.... I have one of these....


And also still have a small set of Doug's Vortex cards that go with me:
www.vortexmediastore.com

WarmCards White Balance System

For professional camera operators and videographers a normal white balance is rarely acceptable anymore. The WarmCards White Balance Reference System is a sophisticated set of white balance cards that make it easy to get a warmer (or cooler) white balance, and then to keep the modified white...
www.vortexmediastore.com www.vortexmediastore.com

Lastly, and this is more a plea to the deaf ears of Sony engineers.... but why oh why can the little a7sIII mirrorless of mine allow to me to select a tiny of portion of the frame - using the dial or joystick on back of camera - to choose a custom WB, while the bigger, more expensive, "cinema" grade camera's not do the same???
(or someone please tell me the Venice or Burano can???)
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The fx3/a7siii WB system is way better than the fx6 for the reason you described.
 
With the A7 models, I just use the manual adjust Kelvin setting and leave it on that setting. I have the left, 9'oclock position on the dial set to WB. Then it just a matter of pressing the left side of the dial and then rolling up or down on the dial until the color temp looks right to my eye. In this mode you can also adjust the white balance on the fly while recording. Dialling in the temp this way allows you to have a smooth transition from one temp to another if you are moving between dramatic shifts in color temp. Press the center button, and you will lock in whatever your dialled temp is.

Chris Young
 
That's a good tip Chris! I should have said in my earlier post that 99% of the time, I also just manually adjust the Kelvin temp and then leave it. To see how close I can guesstimate, I like to guess first by eye, then dial it in while thru VF.
Except in the situations Charles just described in post #26 - where I want to match sources to existing, odd practicals.
 
Its a long chat not for my phone. But rng .. the Tibetan folk in their candle lit hut.. its ok of they are yellow. The sunset.. leave it purple. The abattoir?. Sicky green works just fine. The corporate green tint windows might need thought.
 
scorsesefan said:
October 20. I pre-ordered
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Beyond blown away by what I am seeing out of this camera.

My god, what a hit.

Instantly better color and motion cadence than any Canon, Sony, Panasonic I have seen in the last 5 years.

I cannot believe it was that easy to get RED into a Japanese mirrorless so quickly.

Oh, man - if it only came 10 years ago.

Very grateful for my own experience and going through the other cameras and tech at that point in time, but damn.

🤯🤯🤯
 
NorBro said:
Beyond blown away by what I am seeing out of this camera.

My god, what a hit.

Instantly better color and motion cadence than any Canon, Sony, Panasonic I have seen in the last 5 years.

I cannot believe it was that easy to get RED into a Japanese mirrorless so quickly.

Oh, man - if it only came 10 years ago.

Very grateful for my own experience and going through the other cameras and tech at that point in time, but damn.

🤯🤯🤯
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I received it today, Norbro. I sold my Komodo. Not sure if I should keep the Nikon or wait for what Sony comes up with. Some day I will be cured of this madness like you ;)
 
I didn't even want to say this, but I saw yesterday morning UP in NJ where I used to get gear sometimes had a body in stock and tried to check out 4x with PayPal but it didn't work because of the major AWS outage.

Absolutely ZERO use for the camera, but damn GAS is still in me, I guess.

Gas Act III pending.
 
NorBro said:
I didn't even want to say this, but I saw yesterday morning UP in NJ where I used to get gear sometimes had a body in stock and tried to check out 4x with PayPal but it didn't work because of the major AWS outage.

Absolutely ZERO use for the camera, but damn GAS is still in me, I guess.

Gas Act III pending.
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Let's hope it's better than Godfather III
 
This would be the first lens I would get (of course also soon paired with a 50mm f/1.2 and maybe like their 135mm f/1.8 or something).

But I'd be so in a mood for a power zoom on this thing.

Nikon.jpg
 
Yeah, that's something I was unable to ever overcome myself.

New camera/mount needed new top native glass, there was just no other way.
 
Looks like a nice marriage between Nikon & Red. I watched a Potato Jet video on the new camera and I agree with him that the next camera ($3,500 - $4,500) will be one to look out for.
 
NorBro said:
Time to sell the Panasonics and Sonys, Bassman...Nikon, here he comes!
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Switching systems at times is certainly an interesting problem to solve.

As an owner/operator it's a much tougher call than perhaps a DP who doesn't need to own cameras and lenses because they just rent out what the production needs for the job or show.

I don't exist in that world, so I need to buy and own equipment. For the most part I have been a Canon shooter over the years. I like their cameras, lenses and workflow, never really had any issues.

However, in the last few I've also acquired camera bodies from Red, Arri and Fuji that I currently own, and have gone through camera bodies from Blackmagic, Nikon and Panasonic in years past.

Through it all I have bought and sold lenses, but more so at the beginning of my career. I've tried to only purchase lenses in the last several years that will outlast any camera body/system switch.

On my part that means mostly EF mount lenses and PL mount lenses. They work across my Arri, Red and Canon cameras and I don't foresee switching over to mirrorless mounts anytime soon.
 
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