One of the most misunderstood settings on a video (or still camera) is the one labelled ‘colour balance’.
The menu behind this setting often looks like this one. From left to right, these symbols tell you what settings the camera has available – so which one do you select?
When colour photography was first invented back in the days of film, there were two basic types of film available, daylight or tungsten. The manufacturers of the film had ‘balanced’ the chemicals on the film so that the colours would be as accurate as possible when you matched the film with the light source. So if you were mainly filming outside, you used daylight stock. If filming indoors under artificial lighting, then you used the tungsten stock.
When the exposed film was processed and printed, the colours of the image would be ‘true to life’.
Unlike the human eye, which can adapt to different light sources through it’s built in ‘auto white balance’, film and now digital cameras are not quite as smart.
Another phrase used when discussing this is colour temperature. Put simply, the sun is blue when compared to a regular light globe (tungsten) and a regular light globe is orange when compared to the sun.
If you want accurate colour reproduction when using your video camera your need to select the right setting. For film, this meant buying the right type of film. On video cameras you select this in the menu, which is a lot easier.
The colour balance menu
Looking at the image above, the options for the colour balance settings are (L-R):
Auto White Balance (AWB)
Sunlight (Sun symbol)
Outside but cloudy (Cloud symbol)
Fluorescent light source (Fluoro tube symbol)
Inside (Tungsten light globe symbol)
If you’re videoing outside select the daylight setting.
You could also use the cloudy symbol if there is no direct sun. (This compensates for the stronger blue light when there is no sun)
The problem comes when you film inside. Is the room lit by tungsten lights (orange caste) or the new range of ecologically responsible light bulbs which tend to more like daylight?
Fluorescent lighting or mercury vapour lights (used in sports stadiums) further complicate the matter as some fluoros have a green ‘spike’ while mercury vapour lamps are half way between daylight and tungsten.
Auto white balance
This setting is designed to make it easier for the user. The camera looks at the brightest part of an image, assumes its white and adjusts the camera accordingly. The problem of course is that these systems never make the right adjustment all the time. Invariably they will also adjust the colour balance during a shot as the sun comes out, etc – the result is never satisfactory. It is far better to get into the habit of manually selecting the right setting for the type of light.
Mixed light
The real problem is when you’re filming under mixed light. This generally happens when videoing inside. You can get daylight coming in a window with tungsten lights lighting the room. Whilst AWB can help, it’s better to stick to whatever is the most dominant light source and select that manually.
LED light sources
One of the great things about the new LED lighting fixtures and the new fluorescent ones is that they are much closer to daylight, which makes shooting inside when there is also daylight in the room a lot easier. Although they have a green ‘spike’, this can be filtered out at on the light fixture.
Have you ever wondered why in interviews on the news that are filmed inside, the curtains on all the windows in the room are closed? This is generally to stop daylight getting into a room lit with tungsten film lights.
