Setting White Balance and Make the Most of the Light

This is another facet of video production which highlights the differences between the human eye and a camera. An eye perceives ambient light as white, but to a camera daylight appears as blue, fluorescents green and artificial light as yellow. This is where the white balance comes in. We adjust the white balance in order to reproduce these colors as a person would see them.

There are many colors in between these blues, greens and yellows and different cameras will pick them up differently. Newer halogen lights are much bluer than their tungsten counterparts, and often they will be mixed as lights are updated as they fail. The eye will be the best judge in these situations.

Setting a white balance if fairly straightforward if you know your tools. Not all cameras were created equal and some can produce white balance better than others. Check your equipment will be able to cope with the conditions you expect during filming.

To manually set white balance, point the lens at a piece of white paper as near to where the subject will be and zoom in until it fills the frame. Do an auto-exposure, the press the white balance button and the paper should appear white. Set exposure back to manual and reframe the shot.

This needs to be done every time the light source changes in order to retain the correct levels. If filming in mixed light, always tip the paper towards the daylight source if there is one to get the best color. In extreme light situations, of where light is colored, don’t worry too much about skin tone as it will never happen. Accept that the light is off and make the best of it. Remembering that a warmer skin tone is far nicer to look at than colder ones will ensure that when doing a balance you choose the right one for the job.

Making the most of the available light is vital for the exposure as well as adding depth to a shot. A cameraman always needs to identify the principal light source and decide if it is a hard or soft light. Managing light can go a long way in making a good shoot.

Not pointing the camera at hard light sources and avoiding subjects that are backlit is the most basic light management. Shooting outdoors in the early morning or late afternoon will offer the best lighting conditions, not counting the weather.

You can get away with bad or less than ideal lighting if the scene or shot has enough to carry it through. It should be avoided if possible, but a shot can survive a bit of bad light. If there is enough going on that the audience doesn’t get distracted, or you are shooting something that can’t be repeated then you have to make of it what you can. Just don’t make a habit of it.