I love that you actually shot little scenes to demonstrate these concepts, I found it incredibly helpful. You guys did a really good job on this. Thank you so much!
Wait…this doesn’t makes sense. It’s the other way around as far color temp. The lower the Kelvins, the cooler it is and vice versa. Not trying sound like a dick but on my camera AND Lightroom…high kelvins, warm temp…low kelvins, cool temp. Please help me overstand
As we mentioned in the video the idea can get quite confusing for most people. The white balance isn't warm or cold, it's a setting in your camera. What gives the image cold or warm tone is the color temperature of your light source relatively to your white balance settings. If your white balance setting is below the color temperature of the light source, the image will have colder tones. If the white balance setting is above the color temperature of the light source the image will have a warm tone. So for exemple let's take daylight, it's around 5600 Kelvin. So if your white balance setting is at 3200, daylight will look cold on your camera. But if your setting is 9000kelvin daylight will look warm in your camera. That is also the case for the white balance setting in professional video grading softwares, like Da Vinci Resolve. If you think about it, it is the same in nature for incandescence. So yes, for a GIVEN COLOR TEMPERATURE, a lower setting of white balance will make it appear colder, and a higher white balance setting make it appear warmer. But for a GIVEN WHITE BALANCE, a light source with a lower temperature (like a candle) will appear warmer, and a light source with a higher color temperature (like a cloudy winter sky) will appear colder. Which is what we are saying in the video :) I think you are confusing white balance and color temperature in some parts of the video
Hey great video! So if I have a controlled indoor environment and I have lights that are 5500K, what you’re saying is that I can just turn the white balance to 6000K and I’ll get a warmer image? Will this cause any other issues? Thank you
Exactly ! With the values you stated their will be no other issues, unless you change your mind in post and try to revert it back. With big gap in white balance and a very warm image, you can start to see the quality decline in details as most camera have limits in very saturated colors, especially the more affordable ones.
If you want the light to appear as white yeah, but changing it a little bit to a warmer or cooler look would still look natural, if you aren't too heavy handed of course. If you are looking for a perfect neutral white be careful : most led or HMI lights that advertise 5600k are not quite exactly at 5600. If you don't have a tool to measure the color temperature of your light you can always try to twick it around 5600k and try to find the perfect white on your camera. It would be small increments though, definitely not under 5000k and not above 6000k for sure. Hope this answer helped !
This is unbelievable quality content not just for a small channel but for even RU-vid. It's like hundreds of dollars course material. Love the entertaining style too. In my opinion, however, maybe do a tiny bit less comedy in it and be a bit more "scientific". Thank you and subbed 😚
Thank you so much. We try out best to make our videos as great as possible, even if it takes times, quality before everything else ! I do take note of your feedback, I'll keep that balance between comedy and science in mind for the next videos ;)
Great info and I adore your accent. My question is how to correctly choose the white balance regarding tungsten, sunlight, shade, etc ? I have a cannon DSLR which I use in a white photo booth. My lighting is a fixed temperature which means more toward the warm side but it has a flash also.
You choose the white balance depending on what light source you have and what result you want to achieve. Let's take a tungsten light for exemple. It's at 3200 Kelvin, so if you want the light to be white-ish you would put your white balance at 3200k also. But if you want a bit of a warmer look you would choose something like 4000-4400. And for a colder look you could go with 2500-2900k. Same applies with sunlight Wich sits around 5600k on a sunny day. If your lighting is fixed at 3200k and you want to use it at the same time as sunlight, you either need to embrace the difference or color temperature as a look, or correct your lights with full CTB gels. They are not to expensive and I'm sure you can find some seller online, the two biggest brand that makes them are Rosco and Lee filters. I hope this answer helped, but if I wasn't clear or if you have more questions don't hesitate to ask again !
Your content is just amazing, I'm surprised it has just a few views (yet... kkkkk) . Keep doing it and some day RU-vid algorithm will bless you 😄🙏🏻 ... thank you so much for the content!
Can you explain how you achieved the candle light scene? How did you get the black background and lit only with candle? What camera settings was it? And did you make it darker in post production? Pleaseee...
The cameras used were a mix of the Ursa Mini pro and the black magic pocket 4k. I don't remember the exact settings but it was nothing crazy : 1/50 sec for shutter, aperture around 2 or 2.8 depanding on the shot. Nothing very far from the native sensitivity of the cameras on the ISO, although the dual iso of the pocket at 3200 ISO came in clutch for some shots. There are several candle scenes : - the first one around 00:27 is just lit with the candles, we used 3 candles and asked Maud to lean over the table and write very close to the flames in order to have a good exposure on her face. The background was already dark because of the inverse square law. We did increase the contrast in post. - the second one at 1:35 was shot in a similar way, but Maud was even further away from the background (around 3 meters) so it appears darker, contrast was also pushed even more in post. - the last candle scene at 1:57 is lit with the candle and an aputure LS 300X using a softbox and an eggcrate, maybe also a flag or piece of black cloth so the background is less lit by the 300x. The light is very close, right at the left edge of frame. We did use a vignet-like mask that made part of the background darker. Contrast was also pushed so Payam appeared even brighter than the background. We usually shoot everything a bit brighter that what you see in the final product in order to reduce noise. Hope this was helpful, let me know if you have other questions ! Nathan
@@MakerSchoolTV hey Nathan thanks for reply .. I was just researching inverse square law, never heard of it before. I think I get it now: the further the light from subject the more light the subject and background gets. Whereas closer the light the darker the background...of course depth of field shutter and background colour etc plays part too ..I think .. I will do more research on the law .. cool video with minimum confusion..thanks to your team ..
We have a video on the inverse square law on the channel if you are curious : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xu4HmGDs1oY.html Hope you find it interesting !
@@MakerSchoolTV yes I've watched it. Love your clear concise videos ..hope you make more. Also some suggestions for future videos...post production work DIY style. .colour grade, correction and sound design and music scores on low budget while editing on personal laptop..
Thank you Anne 😅 still alive, in remission though. But once he recovers from the physical and psychological trauma he will be back in front of the lens ;)
Hey Laëtitia, great video, and thanks for sharing, how do you get the aspect ratio of this video, (I try with mine but it fills the whole screen, left to right )
Hello ! All the aspect ratios you see in the videos are made in the editing software we use (Da Vinci resolve) via premade black masks, or custom made via the crop tool. We then export with a 16:9 aspect ratio for the whole video for RU-vid !
Question: if you are shooting a scene in a room with lots of natural light from windows, would you be able to shoot it across multiple days? And different times of the day? How would you make the color temperature of your shots consistent for the scene, when the color temperature of the natural light will vary?
It can be a very difficult endeavor. To begin with you should check forecast to see if the weather is consistent. It you have some sunny days and some cloudy days for the same scene, thoses shots are gonna be very hard to match. Even if you watch the color with the white balance, the cloudy day is still gonna produce a softer and dimmer light. As for the time of days it depends. For a cloudy day the light is going to be drastically reduced in intensity early in the morning and towards the end of the afternoon. But for a sunny day it can be a lot more challenging as the direct light from the sun might move around in the room. If the windows are northbound it's gonna be easier, because the sun travel from east to west with a slight incline to the south (and a heavy south incline during winter). Which means you most likely won't have a lot of direct sunlight coming through the windows and the light is going to be somewhat consistent during the day. If the windows are southbound then the sunlight will most likely enter the room and move from one side of the room to the other during the day. If you still want to match the color temperature of different shots with different natural lights despite thoses problems it's actually the easiest part. A cloudy day is gonna be colder and a sunny day is going to get hotter and hotter from noon to sunset. So if you want the color of the scene to look like it's all the same day/time of day, you need to change your white balance everytime the color temperature of the natural light changes, to maintain a consistent color in the camera, and compensate for the light changing color in the real world. The easiest way to do it accurately would be to use a meter to measure the color temperature of the daylight frequently, but thoses can get quite expensive (ours is 800$+, it's from Sekonic I believe) But don't worry, you can still do it without a tool like that, juste by filming a white object for reference like a piece of paper on each new shot, and doing it by eye, comparing the tint of the piece of paper on your camera to the tint it had on your previous shots. It's not gonna be perfect but it's gonna be close enough that you should be able to clean things up in post with minimal efforts 👌 I'm not sure I answered accurately to your question so don't hesitate to ask more :)
@@MakerSchoolTV thank you so much for your awesome and speedy reply! This video is the most entertaining and most beautifully shot tutorial I've ever seen, you have inspired me in so many ways. Plus you helped me with my specific question! You're amazing. Thank you so much!
Thank you very much for the efforts and this helpful content. Is it then right to film e.g. an entire outdoor film from sunrise through the day to sunset with a fixed number for kelvin/white balance?
Yeah it could be an artistic decision. The result might be a bit more saturated that your eye sees in the sunrise/golden hour/Blue hour, because the eye can adapt a little bit to color temperature shift, but the camera doesn't unless you change the white balance. But that could be a cool and moody look. In the end it is a choice on wether you want a more neutral look for each step of the day, or if you want a more colorful look, and if so how much colorful do you want the film to be.
@@MakerSchoolTV thank you very much for the answer. I remember having heard a RU-vidr saying that he is keeping a fixed white balance to capture the light as authentic as possible for the spectator. Maybe he chose a compromise between full sunlight and sunrise/sunset scenery. I will try and imho I think I have to adjust WB a tiny bit in case I want to keep the footage accordingly to how I see it, as you also mentioned. Thx a lot 🙏🏼
Very cool and interesting content ! And a lot of efforts put to illustrate it, congrats ! My doubt is : I know I want my final video to be warm so what is the best practice ? Should I shoot everything the more neutral way possible (my light sources are windows, so I would set my WB to 5600K) and then warm it all in post ? Or should I set my WB to 6000 or a bit more to get a warm tone directly when recording ?
I would say it depends on the codec you are using. A raw format, or a 444 sub sampling, allow for a lot of flexibility with colors in post, but a more restrictive codec might be hard to manipulate. In that case I would record the footage warm by changing the white balance, because touching it in post might result in subpar quality
