GL-2Color issue... need help please

[Roy Hinkle]

I shot some footage recently and after checking the footage I noticed variations in the color/brightness of the shot thoughout the shot. It wasn't overly dramatic, but it was noticable. I had everything on manual except the Focus and White balance. The camera was on a tripod and the scene was well lit. The actors were in a sitting position and only moved their upper body (ie: arms and head). I'm figuring I did something wrong, but not familiar enough with GL-2 to know. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Roy

[Jeff Donald]

Can you post some examples or email me some files so that I can post them? Without any examples it would be very hard to say with any certainty what the cause or solution might be.

[Nathan Gifford]

What Jeff said, post some examples. In the meantime, did you use the same lights throughout the shot. If you used different lights, some may have had different color temps or color reproduction index (CRI).

[Tustin Larson]

I had the same thing happen to me at first.... and then I found the White Balance. Try a manual White Balance, or if you are not confortable with that, use one of the auto settings. Either way, the White Balance will always help if properly set.

Tustin

[Roy Hinkle]

I will try to get a few examples posted tonight. It was a low budget shoot for sure, so we used whatever lighting we had including the floresent lights in the room. It was just weird that the camera was reacting to the lights so differently from second to second or more like minute to minute.

Thanks,
Roy

[Nathan Gifford]

Oooh! Fluorescent lights! They can create all kinds of problems especially if they are not all the same. Fluorescents have different color temps than normal indoor lights. Plus even when they do, they may not have a good CRI.

You can use fluorescent lights. They have the advantage of being low power, soft, and do not radiate much heat. You must select them by the color temp, CRI, and must have good ballasts.

- or -

You can get a manufactured system that the pros use....

[Jim McNally]

i've experienced that as well, where the hue fluctuates as the shot rolls on. In my case I had the auto white balance on which I assume was reacting to something it considered was changing. I now shot with a manual balance on everything and haven't noticed the problem again.

[Ken Tanaka]

Roy,
Off-hand I would point to your use of auto white balance. The GL2's white balance seems particularly sensitive, even more so than the XL1s. You really need to set the wb manually or use one of the explicit presets (daylight, tungsten, etc.) Also as Nathan noted, flourescents can really twiddle your auto wb something fierce, especially in a mixed-lighting setting. As the flourescent lights cycle the color of the scene can slightly shift in such a mixed-light setting, particularly poorly maintained lamps with old ballasts. You can't see this happen but your GL2 often can. (I saw this demonstrated vividly in a class a couplle of years ago with an XL1.)

Always use manual or preset white balance.

[Peter Moore]

I had the exact same problem - it's the white balance. Always set the white balance manually. The auto settings are not very good, and it does tend to fluctuate a lot if you keep it on auto, depending on the lighting conditions.

[Roy Hinkle]

You guys are great.

Thanks for all of the great help and suggestions on this issue. I was originally guessing it was the auto white balance, but being new to the GL-2 (which I love by the way) I figured I would ask the experts.

Thanks again,