Hi all,
I am regularely using a ColorChecker Passport and its included gray card to create camera profiles and fix my white balance in post. This works exceptionally well with RAW. Now I am starting to use the video possibilities of my 5DII. To my understanding, recording to H.264 will be comparable to taking JPG stills. So my white balance needs to be set correctly before I start capturing any video footage. So now, here is my problem: My gray card is way to small to make an in-camera custom white balance, because for this to work, the card would have to fill the whole picture. Isn't there a setting that let's me sample a spot inside a picture to create a custom white balance, like the color dropper in Adobe Camera Raw? How do professional video shooters deal with this?
Cheers guys,
obsoquasi
*bump*
no ideas?
There seems to be something like a sock, that you can put over your lens and direct it towards the light - however, the result will of course have different exposure, which might play into the white balance equation. In any case, I really hope canon will add an eye dropper to it's in-camera custom white balance tool.
Alternatively, I could take a test shot of a gray card before starting to capture video, import it in ACR, use the eyedropper there and copy the corrections manually to the camera. Not a very pratical solution...
Cheers,
obsoquasi
I too use the ColorChecker Passport with my Pentax K-5, it works well for both video and still photography to set white balance while using the camera. Why do you have to make the gray card fill the entire picture? If so, does it have to be in focus? Just put it really close to the lens and make it out of focus, just make sure it's in the correct light, then set the white balance.
[quote name='Alexander ' timestamp='1307925354' post='9156']
I too use the ColorChecker Passport with my Pentax K-5, it works well for both video and still photography to set white balance while using the camera. Why do you have to make the gray card fill the entire picture? If so, does it have to be in focus? Just put it really close to the lens and make it out of focus, just make sure it's in the correct light, then set the white balance.
[/quote]
I believe that having the gray card out of focus would be preferred to in focus due to the elimination of hot spots etc creating a more uniform image.
[quote name='Bryan Conner' timestamp='1307942470' post='9163']
I believe that having the gray card out of focus would be preferred to in focus due to the elimination of hot spots etc creating a more uniform image.
[/quote]
Hm, yeah, I guess you're right.
With Pentax you can move a square around the image to the area where you want it to set a white balance.
[quote name='Bryan Conner' timestamp='1307942470' post='9163']
I believe that having the gray card out of focus would be preferred to in focus due to the elimination of hot spots etc creating a more uniform image.
[/quote]
I'll try that. However having the graycard so close to the lens creates its own problems and is down right impratical for UWA shots.
[quote name='Alexander ' timestamp='1307980369' post='9175']
With Pentax you can move a square around the image to the area where you want it to set a white balance.
[/quote]
Very nice feature. I hope Canon will come up with something similar...
It is a common misconception that your grey card has to fill the entire frame. Canon clearly states in the owners manual for the 5dmk2 that the WB source only needs to fill the spot metering circle. This is also the same for many, if not all, of Canon DSLRs.
Only having to fill the spot meter circle hopefully will make your white balancing experience more enjoyable. <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cool.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='B)' />
[quote name='Bryan Conner' timestamp='1308117675' post='9235']
It is a common misconception that your grey card has to fill the entire frame. Canon clearly states in the owners manual for the 5dmk2 that the WB source only needs to fill the spot metering circle. This is also the same for many, if not all, of Canon DSLRs.
Only having to fill the spot meter circle hopefully will make your white balancing experience more enjoyable. <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cool.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='B)' />
[/quote]
Indeed that's excellent news! Thank you for clearing that up!!