Week 3’s 8:30am tutorial was the perfect combination of theory and practical work. I find it incredibly satisfying to learn something new and then be able to put it into practise immediately. However with my early wake-up call, I did struggle to nail and understand all of the theory. Thankfully, the content was interesting enough to keep me engaged and the blanks were filled in by class mates during filming. This week’s theory was centred around the basics of white balance. Depending on the light, some colours may be more visible than others. Therefore white is used as a reference to measure the other colours in the frame. The camera measures these levels of colour using kelvin temperature. The higher the kelvin temperature, the more light there is (as shown by the list below).
Kelvin temperature
1600k- candles
3200k- film lights
4000k- fluorescent
5200k- sunny
5600k- cloudy
Once the camera has measured the level of colours, the opposite colour must be injected to balance what we see in the frame to resemble what we see naturally. For example if my shot appears very yellow, blue must be pumped in to balance this. The following diagram shows the opposite colour the camera will pump in:
It was at this point I realised by understanding just exactly how the camera worked and why it did what it did, I would be aware of how to correct any problems I had with white balance. A grater understanding of why my frame was overly blue/yellow, would allow me to remedy this.
Furthermore, we were given a helpful acronym of things to check before we start shooting. ‘APOWFER’, helps to ensure that we have all of the of the following in check and adjusted correctly: audio, power, on, white balance, frame/focus/focal length, exposure & record.
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