I have been learning about white balance and the effect it creates. I have also learnt how to correct white balance.
White balance is the measurement of colour temperature. Colour temperature can be blue, white and orange and it is measured in kelvin’s. Colour temperature is the colour a light gives off, for example, the sun gives off a blue colour temperature and candles give off an orange light. Most cameras have changeable white balance settings but auto white balance (AWB) is selected by default. Some cameras require you to change the white balance in kelvins but most cameras have 7 pre-set settings. These are AWB, Cloudy, Shade, Daylight, Flash, Florescent and Tungsten. To correct colour balance you can either add orange or blue to your picture or film. You can do this in a multiple of ways including CTO (colour temperature orange) and CTB (colour temperature blue) filters. The colour temperature can be corrected in post-production as well. If you take a photo outside with no white balance it will turn out blue you can correct it by adding orange to the photo.
exposureguide.com. no date. White Balance. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.exposureguide.com/white-balance.htm. [Accessed 28 September 2016].
I took photos using all the white balance settings of the camera to demonstrate the different effects. I took one set of photos inside near artificial light and I took one set outside.
Artificial Light
These photos were taken inside with just the artificial light from light bulbs.
Natural Light
These photos were taken outside with just the natural light of the sun.
Natural/Artificial Light
These photos were taken inside near some windows. Both the natural light of the sun and the artificial light of light bulbs are present in these photos.
3 point light is a commonly used lighting setup and consists of 3 lights, a subject and a camera. It consists of a key light, a fill light and a back light. The key light is always the brightest and is positioned next to the camera. The fill light is positioned on the other side of the camera and is a less intense diffracted light. The back light is meant to create an outline around the subject which helps to make them stand out from the background, it is positioned behind the subject but out of view of the camera.
weareincredible.com. no date. LIGHTING. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.weareincredible.com/ifw/lighting. [Accessed 28 September 2016].
astronomersgroup.org. no date. Amateur Astronomers Group Electromagnetic Spectrum page. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.astronomersgroup.org/EMspectrum.html. [Accessed 1 October 2016].
When filming an interview outside there is usually one source of light – the sun. If you wanted to light both sides of the interviewers face you would have to add a light on the other side of their face. Using a normal light could ruin your shot as you would have 2 different colour temperatures at the same time which makes it impossible to fix the colour temperature. To fix this you can use a reflective surface to reflect the light source onto the other side of their face. This can be done with something called a reflector. A reflector has different coloured sides for different amounts of reflection.
Natural
These photos were taken outside with just the natural light of the sun on the right-hand side of the subject. We put a reflector on the left-hand side to reflect the sunlight onto the other side of his face. We experimented with the different colours of the reflector to see the different effects created.
Black Reflector
Gold Reflector
No Reflector
Silver Reflector
White Reflector
Artificial
These photos were taken inside with just the artificial light from light bulbs on the left-hand side of the subject. The reflector was placed on the right-hand side of the subject.
Gold Reflector
No Reflector
Silver Reflector
White Reflector
Black Reflector
Chris McNair
