Wrong White Balance

[Brad Ridgeway]

I accidentally used the wrong white balance setting on a bunch of clips with from my Sony Handycam (XR500). It was set to Outdoor when I was shooting Indoor. Is there a simple way to correct this in Vegas?

[Graham Bernard]

Originally Posted by Brad Ridgeway

I accidentally used the wrong white balance setting. Is there a simple way to correct this in Vegas?

Well, there are several places/Levels you can apply ANY FX - Media or Event or Track or Preview. In this scenario apply the CC to the Preview Window. This will apply the CC Globally - done. Or if ALL your Media is on the same Track then try Track Level. I think at Media Level it could get messy and tedious. But you could try. At Event you could try Paste Event Attributes. Copy from a Corrected Event, Select Events and then Paste Event Attributes.

Now, the actual correction you’re going to get is something you’re going to judge. If you post here a sample Still of the Media I can give you my version. Up to you.

[Brad Ridgeway]

Thanks Graham. This was from a 3-camera wedding shoot and the affected shots are just from one camera and specifically from the "bride getting ready" part of the shoot (my inexperienced wife was operating that camera and did not realize the white balance was set to outdoor when shooting inside). There are quite a few clips but I am thinking that if I can get one corrected then I can copy and paste the correction to the rest like you mentioned since all the footage is from the same setting.

I am just getting started on the editing. I don't have any experience using color correction and similar tools in Vegas but I will give it a try myself and if I am having a hard time I will post a still for you to help with. Thanks for that offer!

[Graham Bernard]

Originally Posted by Brad Ridgeway

I don't have any experience using color correction and similar tools in Vegas but I will give it a try myself and if I am having a hard time I will post a still for you to help with. Thanks for that offer!

Well, it can be daunting. Do try first, unless it is very out of whack, it should be doable. However, if the internal shots have variable artificial lighting, which can drive you nutz, it does take some careful wrangling. Of course, there is another, creative approach which you may wish to contemplate 🤔.

There are many many approaches to this. It’s an opportunity to experiment.

[Christopher Young]

If you want very powerful white balance correction but with fine subtle adjustment use the "Channel Blend" plugin.

Select and add this from your Video Event FX. Once this is applied to a clip hover your cursor between the up down arrows on the FOURTH row of boxes on the color you want to add or subtract. If your image is too blue then this would be the blue adjustment box, third row down, and then adjust blue to the minus value. How you do it is to hover your mouse between the little up/down arrows on your selected color. Doing that you will see two horizontal lines appear. Now hold down the CTRL button and the the LEFT mouse button. While holding down the CTRL and LEFT mouse button push your mouse up and down to increase or decrease the color value of your chosen color. By adding and subtracting values carefully in the RGB boxes, the top three boxes in the fourth row, you can dial in a near perfect white balance.

You can of course apply the Channel Blend in your Project Media pool by right clicking on a clip and selecting "Media FX" and apply your color correction there. Doing it this way any clip selected from that particular media will have that correction already applied to the clip when it is added to the timeline. Copy Paste Attributes is then not required.

Chris Young