Natural Lighting & Color Temperature

[Will J. Lokken]

Hi guys,

I was wondering if anyone has any tricks to reduce the difference in color temperature when shooting with natural light on a clear day.

On sunny days I often like to shoot in the shade rather than direct sunlight, and often the "key" will be the blue sky, unless the sun bounces off a building etc. I always desaturate the blues/cyans a lot in post, but sometimes it's still not the desired look.

I found shooting at 6500wb helps a little. Do you know of any other techniques to reduce the 'blueness' of the light in camera/on set?

I like how both the areas in sunlight and shade look fairly neutral in these shots from The Game. Clearly the blues are desaturated by the look of the sky in the first picture.

[David Mullen ASC]

There's nothing you can really do to change the difference between skylight and direct sunlight in terms of color temperature, not on anything wider than a medium close-up at least, and at that point, you are better off matching to the wider shots.

 

At best, you can use digital color-correction tools in post to pull down some of the color cast that is causing that difference.

 

If you're just talking about that first wide shot, a color grad filter would also help change the color tint of the bottom or top of the frame.

[Will J. Lokken]

Thanks for your answer David.

I guess the use of digital color-correction is the best bet like you say.

The F-65 claims to be good for shooting in mixed white balance situations. At least I saw an ad/article about it somewhere with examples -- Don't know where to find it again. - Would you say different mediums respond differently to mixed white balance than others? Film-stock vs. alexa vs. red

Edited November 6, 2014 by Will J. Løkken

[David Mullen ASC]

Well, I'd prefer a film stock or digital camera that could see the difference between colors...

 

It's not that a high-end camera like an F65 or something like film stock doesn't see the difference as clearly, it's that the recording has more color information with less compression that makes it easier to color-correct without artifacts showing up. With lower end cameras that have less color depth and more compression, it's harder to color-correct one shade or hue of an object independently of another, just like it is harder to pull a good chroma key.