Lighting and Color Correction/grading

[Alex Zustra]

Is it generally best to get all the light in your scene balanced white (regardless of whether it is achieved through in camera balance, stock, tungsten vs. hmi, gels, filters, etc.) and then grade/time in the desired color in post? Or would you use any of the aforementioned techniques to capture the image in that color? Or is it simply a matter of preference?

 

Obviously, this isn't always possible when mixing color temps and whatnot, just curious as to how you guys usually go about this.

[Adrian Sierkowski]

Preference, though I would recommend getting a good bit of tint in camera as a guide for post (if you're not there) but not enough that you can't dial it back later on. Also, some situations will dictate how you have to achieve your colors; be they in camera or in post (for example in Oh Brother Where Art Thou, which just springs to mind, browning all of the grasses when in fact they were green.)

[David Mullen ASC]

If you are shooting digitally, I find it best to get halfway to the final look in-camera with a bit of wiggle room for shifting the image more -- i.e. if you want a blue moonlight look, give it a pale blue tint in lighting and add more blue in post if you feel the need to. If the image is always shot neutral, it can be hard to add a strong color shift without having some noise in one or more of the color channels, whereas it's easy to add a mild shift one direction or the other. So add your color effect in-camera but be conservative so you don't overdo it.