white balancing?

[Jeff Toogood]

What do you guys usually use to manually white balance your camera? (cards, paper?? Etc.)

I have a wedding coming up in a few days and just trying to get all the last minute things figured out.

Thanks

[Graham Bernard]

I've WBed on a hankerchief .. my mates white shirt .. one of the chorasters blouses . . Went to a tutorial given by a bloke from the BBC you WB-ed on a light bulb . . nah wouldn't do it meself .. Cards . . never used them . .Used A4 white paper . . do some experimenting IF you have time .. see what takes your fancy. .. At the end o fthe day whatever you do do . .DO WB .. . made my life simpler . ..

[Graham Bernard]

.. nearl forgot, caterers tablecloth!

[Thomas Smith Jr]

I like to use the back of my Don Earl clap board.

[Ken Tanaka]

Anything near-white will do the job. I generally use the white plastic white balance cards that Porta Brace includes with many of its bags.

The target does not have to be large but it should be flat. It is also important that you focus on the target and properly expose it -before- striking your manual white balance. (A common mistake by new shooters.) It's also important that the target be completely illuminated by the light source you're trying to balance against.

As you move forward you may want to try out some WarmCards, which are white balance cards designed to shift the camera's manual white balance in various ways.

Have fun!

[Thomas Smith Jr]

But why are warmcards from http://www.warmcards.com so freekin' expensive. I mean $65 for some laminated pieces of card stock? Couldn't I just use construction paper that is a similar shades of blue that they use? Or is it made with some sort of special paper? Or special lamination?

[K. Forman]

It's a percentage of grays and colors, and you can do it yourself. You just need to know the right percentage.

[Ken Tanaka]

<<<-- Originally posted by Thomas Smith Jr : But why are warmcards from http://www.warmcards.com so freekin' expensive. I mean $65 for some laminated pieces of card stock? Couldn't I just use construction paper that is a similar shades of blue that they use? Or is it made with some sort of special paper? Or special lamination? -->>>

You could, indeed, replicate the colors on a good printer. Then laminate them to sturdy stock. But the basic value proposition of Warm Cards is that of time. I doubt that Warm Cards considers hobbyists as their primary market. Their market is more likely to be shooters facing time/cost premiums.

[Thomas Smith Jr]

good point.

[Hans Henrik Bang]

You might want to check out the thread in "Open DV discussion" about using bleached coffee filters. It sounds like a stroke of genius. I haven't tried it out myself, since I just read it, but here it is:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=28088

[Ian Stark]

Ken, you mentioned in an earlier post that it is important to have your target illuminated by the light source to be balanced against. That makes total sense.

Any tips for how to white balance when the light source is a bunch of spotlights and overhead lights on a live theatre stage with a camera at the rear of the auditorium?

Thanks.

[Graham Bernard]

.. uh-huh? . . this should be interesting ....

G

[Ken Tanaka]

Here's an excellent recent thread on the general subject of shooting a theatrical performance.

[Ian Stark]

Stunningly useful. Thank you so much Ken!

ps, I won't tell you that I had in fact seen that thread a few days ago and had made a mental note to read it properly at a later time. That would make me look like an idiot . . . so I'll keep it to myself.

[Ken Tanaka]

It's such a good thread that it's a good application of a little-used, rarely-noticed feature of our system: the "Show Printable Version" link at the bottom of each thread page. That link will reformat the thread into a form better suited for printing.