Video A-Z

Video A-Z

White balance is more important for videography than it is in stills photography, and for two reasons:

There's no RAW file to fall back on: you can't change your mind about the white balance setting later without degrading the image quality.

Continuity: You can't have the camera changing its mind about the auto white balance setting half way through a scene, and you also need to ensure continuity of colour rendition from one scene to the next.

There is some scope for editing the video footage later (or 'grading', in video-speak), but it's not ideal. Instead, you need to think about white balance when you shoot. Auto white balance is too much of a lottery – you should choose a white balance preset instead, make sure it's right for the conditions and then stick to it.

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Rod Lawton is Head of Testing for Future Publishing’s photography magazines, including Digital Camera, N-Photo, PhotoPlus, Professional Photography, Photography Week and Practical Photoshop.