Video Production Tips - # 3 White Balance

I was asked by a viewer what white balancing is. White balancing is a feature that you'll find on pro-sumer and professional camcorders. Basically, it gives the camera operator the ability to tell the camera what should be white. The camera then bases all of the other colors off of what it thinks white is.  White balancing is achieved by holding up a piece of white paper or a white object in front of the camera, zooming in so the whole screen is white, and then pushing the white balance button.

You'll notice that once you do this, the piece of paper will appear white and all the other colors in the room will seem more natural and accurate. You can experiment with different colors. If you have a blue piece of paper and use that to white balance then everything will adjust to the blue and the scene will look more orange or red. Vise-versa if you balanced with an orange piece of paper the scene would appear bluish.

Here are some common mistakes when white balancing:

1. White balance every time you move to a new location. Just because you white balanced in the beginning of the day doesn't mean it will last all day. Every time you go from indoors to outdoors or room to room you should re-balance.
2. Make sure you have all of your lights setup (if used) before you balance and make sure the paper your using is being lit by your lights when you balance. Anytime lighting conditions change you need to re-balance.
3. Make sure the object your using is really white, unless your going for a certain effect. Don't use peoples teeth or walls unless your sure its pure white. I find a thick piece of paper works nicely.

Most editing softwares have a white balance feature. If you forget to do it in the camera you'll at least have that option. Balancing in the camera is better though.

Hopefully this will give you a better understanding of this vital feature for quality video.

- Chimera Productions