White Balance and Colour Temperature

White Balance

White Balance is the process of removing colour casts from a shot so that which appear white when looked at with our eyes, which are far better at judging colours, are also rendered white in the actual shot. The colour temperature (see below) of a light source should be taken into account. Unlike our eyes, digital cameras can often struggle to apply auto white balance. Instead, they can create unsightly blue, orange or green colour casts. Possessing a proper understanding of using digital white balance can help filmmakers to avoid these colour casts, therefore improving their shots and allowing them to use a wider range of lighting conditions.

White Balance has been applied to create better lighting conditions.

Colour Temperature

Understanding colour temperature is the key to perfecting the lighting in a shot. Each light source has its own individual colour, or colour temperature, which can vary from red to blue. For example, candles and sunsets give off light that's closer to red, giving the shot a warm look. Whereas things like clear blue skies give a shot a cool look. Cooler colours like blue and white generally have colour temperatures over 7000K, whereas warmer colours like red and orange have a colour temperature around the 2000K mark. When setting your camera's white balance manauly, you are given a number of pre-set colour temperature options, or you can customise your own settings.

A scale measuring the temperatures of different light sources.

Colour Gel

Colour gels are transparent, coloured filters used in film to colour light or to apply colour correction. Modern gels are thin sheets of polyester or polycarbonate. These are placed in front of a lighting fixture and in the path of the beam, applying a filter of the selected colour over the scene being filmed. Eventually, however, the gel's colours can fade or even melt.

Lighting Fixtures

Lighting Fixtures, such as Arri Lights, are electrical devices used to create artificial light. This is done by use of the electric lamp within the fixture. All fixtures like this have a light socket that holds the lamp in place, but also allows for its replacement. They should also have a switch to control the intensity of the light. Reflectors can also be used to direct the light.

An example of an Arri light in action.

Camera Angles - Instructional Video

Instructional Video

As a group, we put together this instructional video to practically demonstrate the different camera angles. These include High Angle, Low Angle, Eye Level, Bird's Eye view, Worm's Eye view and Canted Angle shots. We also attempted to demonstrate a Crane Shot and a Trombone Effect. We showed all of these in this instructional video. Each of us had our turn at both starring in the video and using the camera to film so that we were able to get some practice at filming these various shots. The video was meant to show, not just how each of these angles/shots were filmed, but the effect they had. The High Angle, for example, creates the illusion that the actor being filmed looks much taller from this  angle. Similarly, the Low Angle creates the illusion of an actor looking much smaller from this angle.