Automatic White Balance: Can VV do it?

wcoxe1 wrote on 9/20/2002, 3:19 PM

Looking at an article in Videomaker, October 2002, p 76, I found an interesting comment among the discussion of COMMON filters found in "Todays NLEs."

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"In the past, if you had a scene that was shot with an improper white balance, you would need to open the color correction toolset and adjust the ratio of red, green and plue in your signal by eye (or by 'scope if you had one available.)"

"Today, you can click on some part of your scene known to be white and the software will not only shift the white pixels to proper white, it'll use the color offset information derived from the white pixels to calculate a new global white balance for the entire scene."

"One click and it's almost as if you can go virtually back in time and white balance correctly in the field. Now THAT's digital progress."

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OK! Having established that these people think that this is common, and after looking all over the VV help, I come here to ask:

Is this possible with VV3? Does it have some sort of auto white correction, like several of my digital still editing packages have (some of the free ones, too)?

If so, can someone direct me to it?

If not, SF please consider it as a suggestion for upcoming releases of VV.

I, for one, use this feature a lot as a starting point with digital stills. it would be a good starting place for video, too.

I can see that there would be problems using this type of filter, particularly in finding something truly WHITE in a scene. However, with a major filter called WHITE CORRECTION, with 1/2 dozen or so presets for various flavors of off-white, I can see it being an excellent starting place.

Thinking back over my last several projects, I can think of several things I could have cued off from: White trim on door frames, white ceilings, white shirts and gowns at weddings, white sand, and boy do I mean white, at Pensacola beach, white clouds, just to name a few.

Anyone think of a few more obvious whites or near-whites you could occasionally find to cue from? These might be the names of the various presets. What would you like to see?

Please, SF, consider this as a major new filter class.

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Comments

wcoxe1 wrote on 9/22/2002, 7:15 PM

Excellent links. Great for stable situations, in particular. My problem, on the other hand, is a double shoot that I am dreading in which it seems that every clip changes color temp on both cassettes. Different types of lights in different directions, sone halogen, some regular floros, some daylight floros, large wattage incandescent, low wattage incandescent, enough color change to be very noticable.

In such a case I have not decided which is worse: The camera set to "Indoor" balance and locked down, on ONE of the dozen light types, or the one set on auto, which tried to accomodate each change.

Tyler.Durden wrote on 9/22/2002, 8:58 PM

wcoxe1,

Perhaps this situation calls for a new "Warhol FX" that posterizes all footage in a random fashion...

Or perhaps yer footage already looks like that, in which case monochrome might be a visual element that emphasizes the subtle themes involved.

Cheers (and good luck),

MPH

wcoxe1 wrote on 9/23/2002, 7:14 PM

Cool! The Retro look.

vicmilt wrote on 9/23/2002, 7:44 PM

WCOXL -

Sometimes it's necessary to bite the bullet and spend a few extra bucks, on certain jobs.
The solution to your upcoming horror show is easy, but costly.

You need a camera with a manual "White Balance" built into it. This is a professional feature that we wouldn't ever shoot without. Any pro would never (basically) shoot with preset color balances. They're just too variable. We "White Balance" every single shot.
But you need a camera that can do this - I use both the Sony VX1000 and the Sony DSR250, which both have this feature (for example).
Check your own camera (re-read the manual). If it doesn't have a manual white balance then rent a camera that does, for the shoot. You will never regret it.
With a manual white balance, you put a white card in front of the camera (in the suspect light, press the White Balance button, and, voila, perfect video.

wcoxe1 wrote on 9/24/2002, 1:10 PM

That is what "I" do, but the shots I have trouble with come from outside sources, and I have no control over the shooting. THAT is why I would like to have the auto white correction. Either these people don't know how, don't have a cam that can do it, or events are moving so fast they can't re-balance every time they breath.

VideoArizona wrote on 9/25/2002, 11:38 PM

<Adjusting the white balance preciously would involve using an eye-dropper tool and <FRAME by FRAME making an adjustment. Vegas doesn't do that, I don't know of any <video editor that does or why anyone would want that kind of headache. >

Not so....Vixen, a plug in for Premier and other hosts does this with an eye-dropper tool and corrects the entire clip in one click. Watch Avid, FAST (now Pinacle) and FCP for more of the same. The eye dropper tool is an excellent way to choose a white balance (or any color type balance effect) for a clip, a track or the entire movie.

Is this a generic way of doing it? OF course! But if the wrong filter was used in a shot, one simple correction is usually all it takes! I use it all the time with my other edit system to help bring out the warmth of a sunset, or the cool morning hues...

FWIW,

David