White balance can be confusing. you've got all these different settings to choose from:
Degrees, Kelvin, tints, gels, temperature... so when, what, and why do you choose certain settings?
It becomes a lot more clear once you wrap your head around a few simple things today
We're gonna try and understand white balance welcome to the film look
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the starting-point: Sunlight. sunlight is pure. White the whitest of white
It's the global standard for all things light and color because that shiny ball in the sky is what illuminates our world
So this is our starting point, our default. we're going to compare all of the lights to sunlight
cameras measure color temperature in degrees Kelvin the color of sunlight is
5500 Kelvin everything up the scale is cooler and everything down the scale is warmer
You can go across the scale but for today
We're gonna concentrate it on the essentials
Fooling your camera the pre-made white balance sentence on your camera are there to trick the camera into believing a different color is white
tungsten lights AKA household bulbs for example are
naturally warmer than sunlight the appear compared to the white of sunlight quite warm and orange on the Kelvin scale they sit at
3200 Kelvin this is where the trick comes in you can actually fool the camera into believing that warmer light is white
If you were shooting a scene indoors and needed to add white lights
But only had tungsten lights you can tell a camera to turn those white
But be warned as soon as you start adjusting that Kelvin scale you're gonna be adjusting all the colors in that scale too if you
Tell the camera warm is white that means everything the camera sees becomes cooler
The warm light becomes white white becomes cold and bluish and all other color gets adjusted in that direction
Sticking to daylight balance if you are shooting a night scene indoors beside a desk with a warm
Desk lamp you may think you have to set this lamp to white because you know white balance
But what if you want it warm? what if the warm orange evening look is what you're going for?
Then you can keep the white balance to daylight
There is no law that says that that light has to be white shoot
The image is close to the intentional final image if you want warm than shoot
It warm, but shooting it safe, shooting it white, then adding a little warmth and post isn't a bad decision either
It's customary to provide some white light into the warm scene to see the color contrast between the warm and cold tones
It helps the warmth stand out and prevent it from becoming muddy
It's fair to say if you've got sunlight in your scene it must be white
For example if you have a scene with a warm lamp in it
But also have a window with daylight pouring in if you will want to set the white balance
Back to daylight if you set the warm lights to daylight balance the sunlight coming through the window will turn very
blue, which will make the scene look really strange
This is a clear sign of the amateur look. now simulating moonlight is a whole different ballgame, but if it's supposed to be sunlight
It's supposed to be white.
Gels are there to adjust the white balance of the light directly from its source rather than from the camera
It's very similar to adjusting the settings on the camera, but instead of fooling the camera from inside
You are fooling the source of light. Let's go back to the warm
Desk lamp during the day you may not want the desk lamp to be so warm
But changing the camera settings to fool the warm light to look white will mess up the color of the sunlight
By adding a blue gel to the warm lamp
Keeping the camera settings to daylight balance the sunlight will be white and the lamp will be significantly cooled down
So that is the very basics of white balance we are going to be doing further videos about white balance and lighting further down
The line so get subscribed and hit that notification bell to keep updated
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Thanks for watching another episode of the film look and remember to achieve it one shot at the time
