How Often Should You White Balance a Video Camera?

[Kapil Raj]

How often we have to white balance a video camera? Want to do white balancing whenever we change the filter and switch-on the camera?

 

[Goose]

From a creative point of view... You should white balance at the start of every shot. This way all of your shots are white balanced correctly. Hope that helped answer your question. And in case you didn't already know you should white balance onto something white under the same lighting conditions as your subject... not just in front of the camera.

 

[laurent.a]

I don't think it's use to do it at every shot. And might even be a wrong thing in some cases. I just do it every time the keylight setup is different.

 

[surjones]

You NEED to white balance every time you're in a different lighting situation. Change lights, white balance. Keeps your white consistent. If you already shot and need to go, add some magenta in post

 

[laurent.a]

you NEED to white balance everytime you in a differnt lighting situation. change lights, white balance. Keeps your white consistant.

Exactly.

If you already shot and need to go, add some magenta in post

What do you mean ??? :shock:

 

[surjones]

Sorry, if you already wrapped production and are in Post, Color Correct the footage by fake baking it. Add some Magenta using the basic color corrector filter.

 

[laurent.a]

It's not the problem of understanding what you wrote (thanks for putting it another way BTW) but... I must be missing something, you are aware English is not my native language - why the heck do you want to add magenta on an image you know nothing about ???? :shock:

 

[surjones]

If your whites don't match and are a little yellowish you can add some magenta in post to color correct.

 

[laurent.a]

OK... No, I'm sorry to say this is not a good advice.

You can't just say "if you have a wrong balance, add some magenta", it's like if someone would say "I'm not sure the meal will be fine" and you would advice "add some salt!" even though you don't know what was cooked!

If your balance is wrong the image may be bluish (if the color temp was higher than what your camera was set for) so that you will have to cut blue (so that you become more yellowish) and a bit of green (as to get a little bit magenta, but far less than yellow). Or it may be yellowish/orange a bit (if the color temp was lower than what your camera...) so that you need to add blue, a bit of green and cut some red (so that you get more bluish/green)...

Magenta is not the opposite of yellow. Blue is. Magenta is the opposite of green.

Anyway, if you missed your balance, correct in post. comma. This should be the best answer...