Video Camera Q: White Balancing

I’ve just gotten a pretty high end “prosumer” video camera which allows me to manually white balance. I do a lot of nature filming and was curious on what the best way to white balance is when im outside in the woods, or in a field?

If i remember correctly, sunlight is slightly blueish, so if i white balance on a white sheet outside won’t i get an orange tint to the video? How can i successfully white balance outside?

This is the whole point of white balancing. If you white balance on a white object, your colours will be balanced for the lighting you have. So no, you won’t get an orange tint.

FWIW, sunlight is 5600°K and tungsten is 3400°K. So if you balance for tungsten and then go outside (or shoot through an open door), your image will appear blueish.

But if the white sheet is outside it won’t be a true white will it? It will be reflecting the 5600K sunlight. Making it a cooler color (correct?)

But everything else outside will be reflecting the 5600K sunlight as well. That is the point of white balance - you calibrate the camera to something that appears “white” in the current lighting conditions, whatever they are.

The problem with posting from the office is that sometimes it takes a while to get back to a post. :stuck_out_tongue:

So…

What Absolute said.