OT: Whitebalance

UlfLaursen wrote on 11/16/2008, 5:26 AM

Hi

How would you deal with this?

I do a recording every sunday at church of the preaching, ½ hour.

The church has big windows, where outdoor light come in, and a lot of indoor light too, so I get mixed lightning. That is normaly no problem. I whitebalance on a peice of paper held up from the pulpit, and that is fine, but...

With the weather we have at the moment, I can have very much daylight come in at the start, and at the end of the ½ hour it can be dark cloudy outside, and much less light come in, and therefore slightly darker picture.

Would it be a solution to light up the guy a bid, so that the % of the total light would go down on the outdoor light, so that it will not influence that much, or any other ideas.

It is har to say when exactly it can come. Today it was at 25 min. and last week it was at 10-15 min. and the week before it was ok, because the weather outside was the same.

It is also hard to cut out when it is in the recording so that you could colorcorrect a bid. It is no big deal, and many people will not notice at all, but I would of course like to deliver as good as result as possible.

Thanks.

/Ulf

Comments

Grazie wrote on 11/16/2008, 5:46 AM

1] Tell them to do the 1/2 hour preaching an hour earlier so you can have consistent lighting?

2] ( I can't believe I am gonna say this .. ) How about AUTO WCB?

3] Everything outside of the preacher's immediate "bubble" doesn't change? Well then, mask out the background and be done! Substitute an alternative non-changing BG?

4] Do EVERYTHING in a studio!

5] . .and finally . .accept that WB moves in mysterious ways and accept changes as nature intended.

HTH

Grazie

UlfLaursen wrote on 11/16/2008, 8:22 AM

Thanks for your time, Grazie.

1] Well, I don't thing it has to du with time realy. I think it is because the weather changes during the ½ hour and gets very dark clouded outside, but of course it is not every sunday.

2] I have tried auto WCB, but I like the 'real' thing better. In mixed in/out lightning the small Canon cam I am using is not that good.

3] Everything changes, but mostly him, because he is protuned up from the pulpit. The background gets a bid darker too, but not that much.

4] not possible, but yes, would be best :-)

5] That's what we are going to do, almost like doing outdoor shooting :-)

It's no big deal after all.

I am doing a gospelconcert there next month in that hall - luckyly it's in the evening - all dark outside with garantuee :-)

/Ulf

JackW wrote on 11/16/2008, 11:35 AM

Perhaps a way to cope with this lies in the storytelling. Start with a wide shot, one that includes the windows and some of the artificial lighting as well as the preacher. This lets the viewer know there is a mixed light source and actually lets him see that some things are warm in color, some cool.

From that point on, changes in lighting and color will be understood by the viewer.

If changes in the outside light get too pronounced, go back briefly to a cover shot, again showing the room lighting and the outside light.

In my experience, in documentary shooting such as you are doing it's only when the viewer doesn't understand what's going on that things like changes in lighting and ambient sound are criticized.

Jack

UlfLaursen wrote on 11/16/2008, 8:48 PM

Good point, Jack - thanks.

/Ulf