White Balance Adjust

2G wrote on 11/17/2004, 11:52 AM
Is there a simple way to fix a white balance problem on a video? I know about all the color correction filters and have read the excellent tutorials on color adjust. But I have been unsuccessful in really fixing the WB problem satisfactorily. If the orignal WB is too blue and I try to remove the blue tint, I always end up causing other colors to adjust as well.

It's one adjustment on the camera to switch between outdoor and indoor WB. It would be really nice if there was a filter where I could simply adjust a scale between cool and warm WB.

Have I overlooked it in Vegas? Or is it just not as simple as I'm hoping?

Comments

johnmeyer wrote on 11/17/2004, 1:28 PM
Or is it just not as simple as I'm hoping?

It is not simple. Color correction is the way to go. There are no presets for "convert outdoor to indoor" or vice versa, because there are too many variables. However, if you do a lot of shooting under the same conditions, you can save your color correction values, once you have created something that works, and apply them to the next scenes you shoot under similar circumstances.
2G wrote on 11/17/2004, 2:06 PM
ok. I understand that not all situations are the same. But let's take a simple classic situation where you were shooting indoors and walked out into bright sunlight. The picture gets very blue. I would assume that is a very specific 'blue' color that is constant. I bring up the color corrector with the three wheels and complete freedom on angle and distance on each wheel. Can you tell me where you would start? If the sunlight is indeed a fixed 'blue', then wouldn't I want to start with 'angle=xxx"?

I completely understand that general color correction is an art as well as a science. But if my camera can have a warm-cool 'slider' that knows how to take the sun's blue out. Just surprising that there couldn't be a filter in Vegas that could at least do a 'rough cut' daylight/indoor adjustment. Then I could use the color correctors to tweak if necessary.

Oh well, I'll use what's there. But if you do any more than bring up the color wheels and click until it looks right, I'd like to understand your procedure.

Thanks.
Walleye2 wrote on 11/17/2004, 2:13 PM
You may want to check out the Ultimate S product from VASST here
http://www.vasst.com/ultimate.htm
In the visual FX area it has Indoor, Tungsten and Flourescent color balance correction tools

I haven't gotten around to trying them myself, but I'm sure others here have and will comment on their effectiveness.

Rick
Jay Gladwell wrote on 11/17/2004, 2:28 PM
The best procedure would be to take an exterior shot of a gray card, for example, at noon (5200 Kelvin) with the indoor filter selected. Also do the reverse, shoot an interior shot of the card under tungsten lights (3200 Kelvin) with the outdoor filter selected.

In Vegas, try using the "Mid" wheel in "Color Correction." Select the plus eye dropper ("Choose Adjustment Color") and click on the gray card. If you want to fine tune it, be sure to use small movements using the up, down, left, right arrows on the keyboard.

Once you've got the image where you want it. Save that setting as John suggested.

Jay
busterkeaton wrote on 11/17/2004, 2:37 PM
Check out this product, the ExpoDisk. It's a filter than slips over your lens to provide accurate white balance. Spot raffled some off at the VASST tour. Tom's Hardware just did a mini-review.
wcoxe1 wrote on 11/17/2004, 4:12 PM
Interesting little filter. I had something almost identical back in the early 70's in 52mm for my Nikon that I brought back from overseas. Left it on constanly. Wonderful exposure tool. That is what they advertised it for back then. Cost, if I remember correctly, under $5.00 including shipping. Was VERY sorry when the filter was lost on a trip.

Look at the price NOW. Amazing what the word DIGITAL can do to the price of something.