White balance is white balance, it's the cameras, your NLEs and your basic reference. It has nothing to do with color presets.

The hardest white balancing is with mixed lighting, and you've got to get that reference or, if you have limited experience, you're likely to spend days in post.

The best tool I have for instant WB is the Expodisc, fast and accurate. Cheers.

I tried color correcting a previous video in which I used the 'factory' preset
Here is the original video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0X5So1nzY2g

and here is the color corrected version ( boosted whites a little, mids a little more, lowered blacks and raised saturation)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y0XBbksNHs

"The hardest white balancing is with mixed lighting, and you've got to get that reference or, if you have limited experience, you're likely to spend days in post."

Inside I whitebalanced in front of talent which gave nice skin tones under fluoro. But infortunately light coming through windows came out with a green tinge. May be an idea to remove pink filter over fluoro. Any suggestions how to get good whitebalance in mixed light ie fluro and natural light

hi brian
liking trucolor outside with auto wb, richer colors than factory preset. doesnt seem to be a problem with consistency

"TrueColor" for Everything?
 

Nic MacDonald referenced an article by pciccone on the merits of using the "TrueColor" preset. I would like to get a neutral look from the camera while not sacrificing color info in post. But, do you really use TrueColor for everything - indoors and out?

Of the thirty or so presets I found on this forum, I would like to narrow down to 2 or 3 for most of my jobs. I do weddings, music/dance performances, interviews, etc. indoors and out. I don't like the flat look of the video presets out of the box and I don't like to do much in post either.

You want to "get a neutral look from the camera while not sacrificing color info in post" but you "don't like to do much in post"? If you don't want to do much in post then what are you saving the info for? Just use whatever presets you think are most aesthetically appropriate for your purposes and bake the look in. You can still tweak it later.

PRIMEEIGHT preset
 

Here are some more examples of the PRIMEEIGHT preset which I use as a "go-to" for almost all the projects I have been working on recently. It works well as a neutral preset and has a very filmic quality.



If anyone is interested in using it...

PRIMEEIGHT

GAM 2
KNE L
BLK M
PED -9
SET -9
SHP 4
HDF M
CMX 2
CGN -4
RGN 8
GGN 11
BGN 12

everything else is set to 0.

Enjoy! Hope it's useful.

I can attest to Allan's endorsement of Expodisc. Best $100 I've spent in a LONG time.

That footage looks like it's shot with a 35mm acromat adapter given the short depth of field. Also, it's exceptionally well lit stuff. You can't tweak the settings of the camera to magically make pretty pictures. It will only help if you know how to lens stuff properly to begin with.

My 2 cents.

Everyone seems to go on and on about the paintbrush (the tool such as a XH A1), but never considers that knowing how to paint (skill + talent) is the real reason great images happen.

Methinks Giovanni could shoot with a Flip video camcorder and make superior images than many of us.