Question about finding color temperature of a scene (on site)

Teagan wrote on 4/22/2021, 7:36 PM

Hi, I am relatively new to this, as I have always used auto white balance, and am finding out that using manual white balance is better but I have a question: How do I find the color temperature of the area I will be recording without bringing my camera all the way over there and using my white card? Is it just as simple as all incandescent lights are 2700K? Or do photographers have a device (cheaper the better) that they can hold up where their subject will be? I will be located in a balcony and I don't really want to disturb the place too much and moving my camera.

Could my phone's "pro" photo app feature to find color temperature be good enough or is it just as simple as 2700 Kelvin is for all incandescent lights? Or do those Lux sensors have a Kelvin detector?

Comments

Musicvid wrote on 4/23/2021, 2:33 PM

There is no advantage to setting to a measured Kelvin temperature point over correct white balance technique that I know of.

A good monitor screen on your camera and experienced eyes can be a great asset to white balance.

RogerS wrote on 4/23/2021, 8:51 PM

If you want to try the phone app approach, you should calibrate it against a known reference (something actually neutral) and see if it works accurately.

For getting close and then adjusting to taste in post, the camera presets for daylight, incandescent, etc. are often fine. If I'm in a hurry and the main light is daylight I don't hesitate to just shoot on daylight or 5500K.

If the scene and subject are all illuminated similarly (say by the sun without any strong locally colored reflections) then you don't have to move the camera at all- just take a reading near the camera and it will be the same with your subject.

To answer what makes a good white balance reference, here's the best test I've seen of popular white balance cards and similar tools: https://www.leeminglutpro.com/whitebalance.html I use an X-Rite Colorchecker Passport as it's small and durable and then shoot it using custom white balance on my camera. I will take a few seconds of footage to make further tweaks in post if needed.