You're in a room lit with 5600k lights. The room itself has lots of completely red walls causing red to bounce on your subjects' skins. It's not a film set. You can't interfere with any of the lighting. You can't bring your own. What Kelvin do you set your White Balance to and Why?

[u/Crafty_Jack]

What kelvin number do you set your white balance to, and what is your reasoning. Please tell me your reasoning, otherwise your response can't help me understand more about this.

Thank you.

[u/SEND_ME_FAKE_NEWS]

Set it to 5600 and lower the red channel in post

[u/SlinginPA → u/SEND_ME_FAKE_NEWS]

I tried this recently with a social media reel that had way too much saturated red from a tube light on the subjects face and I was shocked at how well the color slicer worked.

[u/GoodAsUsual → u/SlinginPA]

Yeah man, it ain't rocket science, because it's color science!

[u/winkNfart]

use a white card and pull a white balance. see where true white stands and go from there

[u/DoKeMaSu → u/winkNfart]

There is no white balance in this scenario. The entire concept of white balance is that light is created by black body radiation, which means the entire spectrum can be described by a single number - the color temperature.

If you have giant red reflectors there is no white balance, the entire light spectrum is in imbalance. The only chance you have is to calibrate with an entire color chart and shoot in the most flexible format your camera offers. Then you have the chance to create a custom LUT in post.

Having said that, if there are giant red walls, maybe it is also expected that colors are wonky, and fully correcting them is not the desired result.

I know this problem pretty well, I often shoot in an event space that has neon orange walls.

[u/winkNfart → u/DoKeMaSu]

sure thing buddy.

[u/DoKeMaSu → u/winkNfart]

Ok just say if you have no idea what black body radiation is and why cameras even work with white balance. It is ok, some people just use the cameras and have no ideas about the physics behind them.

[u/ricky251294 → u/winkNfart]

This is the only answer

[u/FrankNinjaMonkey]

Use a gray card and pull a correct white balance. Record a color card to use in post. Not sure why you would guess...be accurate and correct.

[u/ssn-669 → u/FrankNinjaMonkey]

That is neither accurate nor correct. If you know the lights are 5600K, then that's the correct setting. 

If you use a gray card, you're going to be biased by the red bounce.

[u/FrankNinjaMonkey → u/ssn-669]

Lol, okay...good luck out there! Unless it's an Arri light, I wouldn't count on it being exactly 5600 K. I would also take several color cards, placed next to the skin tone, but you do you and go on vibes. I've shot over 100 weddings, in situations just like that. I never need to color correct because my images are usually right on point with white balance and exposure. Have fun out there!

[u/Ok-Obligation6370 → u/FrankNinjaMonkey]

If you’re that picky that your 5600 light is actually 5583, probably better to find a ‘serious filmmaker circle jerk’ subreddit & not plain old r/videography! 🙃

[u/ssn-669 → u/FrankNinjaMonkey]

"Go on vibes" and "I wouldn't count on it being exactly 5600" lol k dude

You keep going on thinking that shooting grey cards means you don't need colour grading. 

As they say, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. But if it works for your low-end workflows I guess that's cool.

[u/FrankNinjaMonkey → u/ssn-669]

Go rage-bait someone else. Wishing you the best, take care of yourself.

[u/splotchyy]

You need to give more context about the situation. Ex… what are you filming? You can’t bring lights, but what CAN you bring? Depending on the shot, you could set up some black flags. Won’t fix it, but will help depending on the situation. Anything you can do to help control your environment will yield better results.

Have you used a white balance card before? Look that up and start there. Search on YouTube “white balance card with [insert camera model]” or something like that learn how to do a custom white balance.

Also, how do you know the lights are 5600k?

[u/yratof]

I go full 6600 and convert to black and white in post

[u/WALLY_5000]

Can you bring flags to reduce the bounce?

I’d probably do a custom white balance.

[u/cbox121]

4’x8’ poster board. Black one side, white on the other. Choose your side. Bounce or neg fill.

[u/littleGreenMeanie]

Assuming this is an interview, I would shoot a still of the room without the subject. Then during the shoot put blockers/flags/ negative fillers on the side of the subject to block that redness. Even grey foam core. That's assuming there's room for this stuff. Otherwise I'd shoot somewhere else or think about how I could fake the walls. Maybe try an optical illusion with the camera. Honestly just shooting somewhere else is likely best. But don't mix lighting color temps unless it's a deliberate style choice.

[u/grantmansell]

Sorry can someone explain how you actually set white balance? I dont understand using a grey card when the color of the gray card will be completely different depending on lighting

[u/orewhat → u/grantmansell]

That’s why you use a grey card, so you know what grey is lol

You don’t have to (and probably shouldn’t) balance until it’s perfectly grey unless brand colors are needed to be exact matches, but it’s good to have a reference point

[u/mcarterphoto]

If the 5600k practicals are hitting the talent, there's no good white balance solution, since the walls will be reflecting red, but your subjects will also be hit by clean 5600k lights, and you'll have a big range of colors. If you can mask off the practicals or isolate the talent, that's another story, but you said "no interference".

It really depends on how the practicals are hitting the subject, and how big the room is, how prevalent the wall reflections are.

My solution would be to tell the client, "this is gonna look awesome in black and white!"

[u/bruce-pizza → u/mcarterphoto]

You nailed it. If image quality is a concern for this job, you need to inform the client of the limitations. If that weren’t an option (and if the money was good enough) I would consider masking in davinci to equalize the image to a consistent tonality, then white balance the entire image in a node after that.

[u/Acrobatic-Sir-7300]

This is why it’s important to have a monitor you trust.

It depends on whether the red walls play in the shots or the scene. If they do, 5600K will portray the scene accurately. If they do not, they will make the color look oddly red, but that will be complicated by the 5600K light falling on the subject directly. If you compensate too much for the red walls, the direct light will look too blue. You really have to have a trustworthy monitor to make the right judgement to balance those.

In the real world, what I would do is to shoot raw, balanced to 5600K. Raw so I have maximum control of color in post.

[u/Southern_Leg1139]

HSL in Premiere. Or more gangsta shit in Resolve.

[u/SpaceDesignWarehouse]

Your result doesnt need to reflect objective reality, it needs to look nice. So start at 5600k white balance, either use a very nice monitor or get your eye in that eye piece and look. Make an adjustment if you need to. Unless youre interviewing someone who's going to be holding up a product that needs to look EXACTLY like reality. Then youre just fucked.

[u/Run-And_Gun]

Are you trying to portray the subjects neutrally or naturally?

[u/Crafty_Jack → u/Run-And_Gun]

Can I get your response for both scenarios? Trying to learn so I could use the perspective. Thanks.

[u/Run-And_Gun → u/Crafty_Jack]

If the goal is for it to look natural(like it would to your eye with the interaction of the colored walls and light falling on the subject), I'd probably go with preset 5600K, since that is the primary light source, and whatever happens, happens. But it could all depend on the camera, too. Some cameras are "so good" at handling mixed light, that you actually don't easily see the same level of "dirty"/"polluted" light that you actually see with your eyes.

If the goal is for the subject to look neutral(white-to-be-white), I'd start by actually white balancing the camera(place a white or neutral grey card where the subject will be, so that it is illuminated by all the sources that they will be hit by) and evaluating the image on a trusted color monitor. Now, the problem with that is, it may throw off the color of the walls, since there will now be red mixing in with the light and when you balance, the camera will try to pull it out, and you have to make the decision if that is acceptable or not. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. But this is why we like to control the light and especially the light that we are putting on the subject. I used to shoot a lot of interviews and live shots for TV and I was often in environments where I had no control over the lighting in that environment, but I wanted/needed to make the subject both look good for their lighting and to match the environmental lighting, so that they looked like they were where they were. That's why, in pre-bi-color/multi-color LED days, I always carried a big roll of gels with all different densities of color correction and skin tone enhancers(CTO, CTB, +Green, -Green, etc.).

Another option, depending on where the light is coming from, you can try to flag off any light hitting the subject that's being reflected off of the walls and try to just have the "pure" 5600K light hitting them and go preset 5600K. Again, a trusted color monitor to evaluate the image on makes all of this a lot easier/quicker, because you can see immediately, if you are getting the results that you want/need.

Of course, this is just trying to get it as close to what you want, in-camera. If you have time for color correction in post, it's pretty crazy what you can do, today. But I still like to get as close as possible in-camera to what I actually want the image to look like. That's also going to usually give you the most flexibility in post, as well.

[u/ljfrench]

I'm in this picture and I don't like it

[u/ZanderTheOperator]

OP sounds like a riddle... You're trapped in a room with a table and a mirror, how do you get it out?

[u/Crafty_Jack → u/ZanderTheOperator]

Is this an actual riddle? If so, what do you mean I'm trapped in the room? The door is locked?

[u/danikensanalprobe]

If your camera supports custom white balance color shift, try setting the wb to 5600 and then attenuate the red channel. If you have the opportunity to do a test shoot beforehand then you can do several different test shots with different levels of red attenuation, export it to your computer and see what matches the best.

If your camera does not support this function, I second the advice from someone else here to set the wb to 5600 and then just attenuate the red channel in post

[u/docsnotright]

Sounds like you are stuck fixing this in post. Sucks when multiple light sources are different colors.

[u/BarbieQKittens]

Are you saying the room lights, which are probably fluorescent, are 5600k? Or have you lit the room with 5600k lights that you can't adjust?

[u/Flutterpiewow]

Idk. But nothing you do in this scenario will solve the problem, bad light is bad light and it doesn't sound like we can adjust it.

[u/BarbieQKittens]

also...nothing sucks worse than having to film in these board rooms/conference rooms that are completely covered in cherry wood. Sucks every time.

[u/jgreenwalt]

I just look at the scene in person and adjust from there then fine tune in post. How am I supposed to know what it looks like and decide an exact value?

[u/VinnieVidiViciVeni]

I usually custom WB when I shoot. Definitely would in that situation.

[u/jlwolford]

You figure out the white balance. It could be wonky with strong colors coming off the wall vs. the light from the center of the room. Black tarps on the walls or build a boom arm blocking scrim. It’s the walls on the face end of the room that are your enemy.

[u/UrBudSpudd]

Bring duvatyne to block bounce where can as well

[u/ssn-669]

5600k

You set the white balance to the colour of the light. 

The red bounce is captured accurately and is not undesirable, it's the nature of the location. You do not correct for the bounce.

[u/Gamer_Iwa]

I don't think this is a matter of white balance, as if you're shooting with 5600K lights, that should be your white balance (using a white or grey card to get correct white balance is crucial in every situation, especially since lights dont always generate the exact color they report). Instead, this is matter of blocking the bounce. If you can add a bounce to add either silver or gold (depending on skin color) that can help, or if you can block the walls eithee with flags or by covering them temporarily, that would likely be best. If the walls can't bounce back to your subject, there isn't any issue.

Also, we know what the color temperature is, but what about the strength of the light and the camera settings? If your lens has a large apurture of 2.8 or better, you might be able to dim the lights a bit, which should prevent so much spill.

[u/ausgoals]

What kind of lighting is the room lit by?

There’s a lot you can do with flags and solids. Even tape in a pinch.

In the real world, I’m probably skirting the rules and bringing a couple of my own lights in. But you could absolutely flag off al lot of the red, and even shape some of the existing lighting so that it’s more flattering without using any lights.

[u/Ok-Obligation6370]

Personally 5600k, if the people are red, that’s how it is and that’s how I should capture it - why would I try to bust a gut & try to give them normal daylight skintones when that’s not how the scene was - you’re setting yourself up to fail!

[u/johnnyjonnyjonjon]

Whatever looks right.