White balance and

colour control
 Why not just use auto settings?

This image was taken with But this is what the scene
the camera on auto white- actually looked like.
balance.
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: Blue: Gold: Yellow:
• Tranquillity • Cold • Wealth • Warmth
• Peace • Fear • Wisdom • Domesticity
• Trust • Sadness • Luxury • Happiness
• Depression

Pink: Red: Grey: Green:

• Softness • Love • Boredom • Nature
• Innocence • Passion • Sadness • Peacefulness
• Childhood • Heat • Monotony • Envy
• Anger • Classy • 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 Cinematography specialists:

• Incandescent
• Fluorescent Film new clips of your partner using
• Direct sunlight a modified version of the cloudy
• Cloudy setting or by dialing in a Kelvin (°K)
setting.
• Shade