Sony has just announced the new PMW-300, replacing the very popular PMW-EX3. As an evolution of the EX3, it features an interchangeable lens system and side-mounted viewfinder. The camera comes with a 14x zoom lens, and a 16x version will be available sometime later in the year. The lens mount system on the PMW-300 is [...]

Sony has just announced the new PMW-300, replacing the very popular PMW-EX3. As an evolution of the EX3, it features an interchangeable lens system and side-mounted viewfinder. The camera comes with a 14x zoom lens, and a 16x version will be available sometime later in the year. The lens mount system on the PMW-300 is [...]

Sony stopped by recently to show us the FS700 with the RAW output option enabled. This upgrade has to be done at Sony for a cost of $400. However, if you buy their HXR-IFR5 and R5 recorder the fee is waived. The cost is well worth it though, as the upgrade also enables not only [...]

The importance of proper white balance

Since white balance with certain lenses can be inconsistent, white-shading a lens to a camera can make sure your whites are really white. If there’s a shading issue where there are different colors on the edge of the frame, your channels will be slanted and curved in different directions (above, left).

At AbelCine, we’re known for our custom scene files and looks. These can be powerful tools for manipulating your image, but oftentimes, getting the best result is all about getting the right white balance in your camera. White balance is one of those adjustments that seems simple but can really make all the difference to your image. I get a variety of questions on setting white balance, from dialing Kelvin values to setting a white off-set, so I’ve written up some of the more frequently asked questions (and answers) that I think you might find useful. Let’s start with a little background on that mystical thing called white balance.

ON THE LEVEL
The term “white balance” is more literal than you might think. Video, as you know, is composed of red, green and blue (RGB) components, and it’s an additive color system where these components add up to white. When the RGB components of the image have different relative levels, they’re out of “balance” with each other. The result is an image that’s overly red, blue or worse…green. You quickly can visualize this on a waveform monitor that shows the RGB components of video. By adjusting the white balance of the video, the RGB levels are all the same, “balancing” the image. (See the properly balanced image on the following page.)

That’s pretty straightforward, but what about that whole Kelvin temperature thing?

KELIN COOLAGE
White balance is usually expressed in terms of a Kelvin temperature value. This is because the color temperature of a light source can be expressed as the physical temperature of an ideal black body radiator or an ideal light source that emits all spectrums of light. You’ve probably seen this scale before, where warmer (red) light has a low temperature and cooler (blue) light has a high temperature. On cameras, this scale is used to describe the color-level adjustments done to RGB in order to match the Kelvin temperature of light that you’re shooting. In indoor situations, lit with traditional tungsten light bulbs, the temperature is around 3200 Kelvin, where daylight is somewhere around 5600K. Most cameras have these values as preset white balances, either described in Kelvin value or with those little light-bulb and sun icons. Cameras are calibrated at the factory so that these presets will produce white balance under the given lighting scenario. But that brings up our first question, which is, “Why aren’t my preset white balances producing a proper white balance?”

WHAT’S WRONG WITH MY PRESET WB?
As you may have noticed, most cameras have several preset white balance values for shooting under various lighting conditions. These settings often can be accurate, but there’s only so much a camera manufacturer can do to make sure they hold true. The photosites on your digital sensor are analog light gatherers, which vary based on temperature, age and other factors. Meaning, they don’t always produce the same result over time, which is one factor in presets not actually being accurate. The other very big factor is your lens; different lenses produce different colors, which is sometimes considered a good thing. For instance, some lenses are felt to give a warmer look. However, they do throw the white balance off and make your presets no longer accurate. What can be done to fix this, you ask? Well, there’s a process called “white shading” that does just that.
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To camera people like ourselves, the term Auto White Balance usually brings to mind that little AWB button on many camera systems. When you press the button, the camera tries to adjust its RGB gain levels to make white things in your picture actually white. However, this is not the only place on set where [...]

Many modern cameras offer an Exposure Index (EI) mode for changing exposure, instead of the simple gain that we had in the past. Other cameras offer both ISO and Gain adjustments that relate to one another, but exactly how is not always clear. With all of these options, I often get questions about the differences [...]

Many modern cameras offer an Exposure Index (EI) mode for changing exposure, instead of the simple gain that we had in the past. Other cameras offer both ISO and Gain adjustments that relate to one another, but exactly how is not always clear. With all of these options, I often get questions about the differences [...]

The internet has proven to be a valuable tool for all of us, and there’s no denying that using the internet for deliverables or proxies is changing the way we think about production. Sony’s new CBK-WA100 wireless adapter allows you to directly upload your footage to a new cloud service (or an FTP server of [...]

If you’re reading this blog, then you’re certainly familiar with the Vitec Group – chances are you own several pieces of gear from one of the many companies they represent. I swung by their booth to take a look at just a few of the new products they had on display, so watch my mini [...]

If you’re reading this blog, then you’re certainly familiar with the Vitec Group – chances are you own several pieces of gear from one of the many companies they represent. I swung by their booth to take a look at just a few of the new products they had on display, so watch my mini [...]

When the Sony FS700 was first released, Sony announced that a 4K Raw recording option would be forthcoming. The Sony HXR-IFR5 is an adaptor that allows you to use the AXS-R5 recorder to achieve 4K Raw from the FS700, but in an exciting development, Sony has also announced that the Convergent Design Odyssey 7Q will [...]

When the Sony FS700 was first released, Sony announced that a 4K Raw recording option would be forthcoming. The Sony HXR-IFR5 is an adaptor that allows you to use the AXS-R5 recorder to achieve 4K Raw from the FS700, but in an exciting development, Sony has also announced that the Convergent Design Odyssey 7Q will [...]