White balance and colour control

Why not just use auto settings? This image was taken with the camera on auto white-balance. But this is what the scene actually looked like.

White balance allows you to control the colour of the image. Different light-sources create different coloured light which can make your shots look too yellow or too blue. By choosing a white-balance option you can control the look of your footage.

Auto – don’t use this one Incandescent – old-fashioned lightbulbs Fluorescent – tubes Direct sunlight – outdoors on a sunny day Flash – colour neutral for still photography Cloudy – this is the best one to use for most filming outdoors Shade – for still photography Chose colour temperature - advanced White balance preset – advanced

Try matching the white balance on the camera to the lighting you are working with then take a test shot to see if you are right. Never use the Auto setting. The camera will change the white balance from shot to shot leading to inconsistent results. Auto Incandescent Fluorescent Direct sunlight Flash Cloudy Shade

You can fine-tune these pre-sets on some cameras to make the image warmer (A) or cooler (B), greener (G) or more magenta (M).

You can deliberately use the ‘wrong’ white-balance setting to give more creative control. Florescent Flash Shade Tungsten

On some cameras you can dial in a Kelvin (°K ) value to set the colour balance very precisely. 3,000 °K (looks colder) 5,600 °K (looks normal) 10,000 °K (looks warmer)

You can change the saturation of your camera by using the Set Picture Control menu. Neutral gives the best results for most situations.

Standard Neutral Vivid

Some colours are associated with emotions or carry semiotic connotations. Blue: Tranquillity Peace Trust Blue: Cold Fear Sadness Depression Gold: Wealth Wisdom Luxury Yellow: Warmth Domesticity Happiness Pink: Softness Innocence Childhood Red: Love Passion Heat Anger Grey: Boredom Sadness Monotony Classy Green: Nature Peacefulness Envy Jealousy

Task: Working in pairs, film a series of 10 second clips of your partner using one of the lighting set-ups in the classroom. You must use every one of the white balance pre-sets: Auto Incandescent Fluorescent Direct sunlight Cloudy Shade Cinematography specialists: Film new clips of your partner using a modified version of the cloudy setting or by dialing in a Kelvin (°K) setting.