How do do a golden glow in DV...should I trick the white balance or do it in post?

BakerSmith · September 2, 2006

Hi,

I'm going to be using a PD150, and I wanted this dreamy golden glow in an exterior shot. Should I trick the white balance and film it like that, or shoot it normally then add the glow in post? My worry is that the footage will look like crap when I review the footage on a monitor, so to be safe maybe I should do it in editing? Total newbie. Thanks for your help.

Baker S. Smith

Michael Collier · September 2, 2006

If you trick the whitebalance with warm cards, you are grading the information when its in uncompressed state. If you have to do it in post you will have more noise, especially in a low-chromanace range of mini-DV. If you can test and find a good look with warm cards it will definatley improve your quality. Most warm cards come in 1/2, 1 and 2. Not sure if they exactly corrilate to 1/2, 1 and 2 stops, but they seem close enough.

When A scanner darkly was shot, Shane Kelly took a swatchbook from one of the gel manufaturers and ballanced through that. That would give you a lot to test, and probably some unique looks can be found.

also try a soft filter on the camera to create that 'glow'.

Edited September 2, 2006 by Michael Collier

Phil Rhodes · September 2, 2006

Hi,

Yes, trick the white balance - although you want bluish cards/lighting/gels to balance with if you want it warm. If you balance on a warm card, it'll go cold.

Phil

BakerSmith · September 5, 2006

If I have no access to gels, can I just get a blue board/paper to do it? Not sure if I need professional cards or if anything blue will suffice? Thanks a lot.

Edited September 5, 2006 by BakerSmith

Phil Rhodes · September 5, 2006

Hi,

Yeah, anything.

The camera assumes you are pointing it at something white. If you give it an image that's not white, however you do that, it'll bend its DSP setup so it comes out white. Doesn't matter how.

You can get quite creative like this.

Phil

Michael Collier · September 5, 2006

I went online and found a website with professionally made warm cards. I coppied the picture and used a sampler to get the color swatches off of it. After some testing and adjustment, I have cards I can print out of an injet that are relatively close to the professional cards.