Warming Card White Balance

[Rafael Amador]

[Robert Mosner] “Thanks for the info. I was under the impression a slight blue card would be used to offset for warming skin tones. All the warming cards I’ve seen are more of an slight redish color.”
The opposite.
They are bluish.
The camera have to convert that blue in pure white adding red to the whole scene.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Michael Slowe]

Guys, the poster who suggested setting the Kelvin manually got it right. Why mess around experimenting with different cards when, with the EX cameras you can select whatever Kelvin you want and put it in a PP for instant recall. If you have your screen (camera or monitor) adjusted correctly it is good to be able visually to set how you want your picture to look. Personally I find that I get too cold a look when white balancing tungsten with a white card and generally like to warm it a little by setting the Kelvin to maybe 3600 or 3700. It’s a fast way to do it and you see what you are getting.

Michael Slowe

[Clint Fleckenstein]

I’ve had the same experience in certain situations where the camera balances too cool. I figured it may be another manifestation of that “near-infrared” situation. If the camera sees more red because of its increased red sensitivity, it may balance further in the opposite direction and give a cool picture.

I too just set it manually.

Cf

[Don Greening]

[Clint Fleckenstein] “I figured it may be another manifestation of that “near-infrared” situation.”

Indeed. But I guess your theory (and it’s a good one) would only apply to the EX1 and EX3. It looks like the OP has an EX1R so manually increasing Kelvin temps somewhere past 5600 would seem to be the most logical way to do it. BTW, it’s actually referred to as ‘far red’ because infra-red is at the far end of the red spectrum that’s not visible to the unclothed eye.

– Don

Don Greening
A Vancouver Video Production Company
Reeltime Videoworks
http://www.reeltimevideoworks.com

[Craig Seeman]

I should mention that dialing in Kelvin is not the same as warm card balancing. Someone who has done the testing has noted that a white balance vs dial in to a level to not look the same. It might not be mission critical but I thought I’d mention that.

[Marvin Holdman]

I’ve been using this for a while and have gotten some great results, especially in mixed light situations;

https://pixelexip.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1&Itemid=2

Gray Card App

When I first got it, I thought it was a bit of a novelty, but after having it and using it over the last year, I must say it’s pretty cool. Takes a bit of getting used to, it doesn’t work exactly like warming cards, but you can quickly and easily “trick” the camera into shifting color balance. Also great for matching two cameras.

Marvin Holdman
Production Manager
Tourist Network
8317 Front Beach Rd, Suite 23
Panama City Beach, Fl
phone 850-234-2773 ext. 128
cell 850-585-9667
skype username – vidmarv

[Bob Cole]

Rick, some years ago, before we had access to sophisticated color correction in post, and had to do everything in the camera, I used a different technique for a show where we had to add warmth to faces (it was a promotional video for nursing homes). We white balanced “straight,” but then shot most of the video (wherever there were people) through a coral filter. Since then, I’ve gone the fake-the-white-balance with 1/4 blue route, along with FCP’s color tools. But I wonder whether adding a coral filter would give a different effect.

I’ve been struck, going through my old, now barely-used, case of filters, how far I have gone from using lens filters to create the “look” during the shoot, due to the incredible array of choices (and the ability to “undo”) that we have in post now. The reason it is an issue for me is that I want to use a matte box, a polarizer, and “grads” more, and that means most of my filters are the wrong size, and I have to decide: Replace or forget about it? I don’t think I’ll be getting new fog filters, though I did find a funny old chromatic aberration filter that I am trying to sneak into every shoot now….

Bob C

[Don Greening]

Good post, Bob. I think the most important on-camera filters these days are still the circular pol. filter and the grads. I think the biggest use for the polarizer is, of course, to reject reflections from glass and water, the side benefit of a bit more saturation. The grads are indispensable for shots where a percentage of the frame is the sky. You can’t duplicate the first filter in post. Or fix in post the result of not using them.

– Don

Don Greening
A Vancouver Video Production Company
Reeltime Videoworks
http://www.reeltimevideoworks.com