This SIMPLE White Balance Hack will transform your Videos

How to fix your white balance for Video. Most Videographers get confused with the terms "white balance" so let me show you what to do instead...
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#whitebalance #colourgrading #videography

[@SamHolland]

Have you fallen into the white balance confusion trap before??? 🎥

[@YanniVelez]

Lliterally 😂😂😂 LOL @ 1:33 - That alone deserved 10 likes! I would hit the sub button... but I'm already following! Great video Sam!

[@SamHolland]

Haha thank you 🤩🙏🏻🎥

[@freshpootube]

Can we please stop calling everything a “hack”?

[@izzyshootsiphone]

Now this is a hack I can stand by 😤

[@Googlypat]

“A hack on How to stop calling everything a hack”. Lovely video idea.

[@kenmorrisproducer]

@@GooglypatCareful who you’re calling a hack! 😂

[@TheBasplay]

And "cinematic" please 🙄

[@drinkinslim]

@TheBasplay "Filmic" 😅

[@artofduke]

I'm SOOOO glad you said what needed to be said, which is that so many scenes call for different lighting and white shouldn't always be pure white. I made that mistakes many times and I have learned to let go of it.

[@eqsone]

Great one, thaks a ton for pointig out the candle light situation and the fact that eyes adjusts to colors without reference.

[@SamHolland]

I hope this helped 🤩🎥 thank YOU for watching

[@scotmj]

Now this is the kind of videos I need, SO handy! Thank you Sam.

[@SamHolland]

Hey. So pleased this helped. Thanks for watching

[@JackieDElia]

Love your videos, Sam. I feel the same way about color grading and am struggling - thank you for posting this video!!!

[@SamHolland]

Hey Jackie 😊 colour grading can be tricky, and when I was learning, a lot of videos made it seem very complex and out of reach for me, but it doesn’t have to be. It is actually very simple now that cameras are so much better. I hope these tips help 🤩 thank you for watching and commenting 🎥🙏🏻

[@versusforward]

Thanks again for the thoughtful and informative video Sam! Keep 'em comin'

[@SamHolland]

Thank you 🤩🙏🏻🎥

[@CaydenLasher]

Remembering these tips from the live course.. 😉 - on a side note, the editing of this video CRUSHES! Really enjoyable watch, as always :)

[@SamHolland]

Brother!!! 🤩 it was so good to have you there. Hopefully this served as a little refresher for you? 💪🏻 Hope all is well! Thanks brother 🤩🎥

[@pudelkopf1093]

after 6 years of videography still learning new ways to understand white balance. Nice made!

[@ferencbalogh8358]

Once again a great short video, thanks Sam! I still use tiffen color card, but it works well.😀

[@SamHolland]

Thank you 🤩🙏🏻🎥

[@jessesenko]

Ur vids are looking great, Sam! Never thought to use the vectorscope for WB, i always just use it for skin. Also super honoured that you named a lut after my stage name, Platinum Steel.

[@SamHolland]

Hey thanks man! 🤩🙏🏻 means so much coming from the absolute master G! 🥹 😂👏🏻 amazing! 🎥🎥🎥

[@markwiemels]

Man, you are so frekin good at this type of video. I'm really glad you have moved back to this more "help" type of content, you do it so well.

[@SamHolland]

Hey Mark. Thanks so much! 🤩🙏🏻🎥

[@Zack-Hates-Youtube]

Your candle light demonstration was spot on! Another KZbinr said that he shoots all his concert footage at 5600k. After seeing the results in the video I decided to do that and since have always recorded indoor concert footage (with a bunch of stage lights) at 5600k. It always seems to render the most lifelike colors despite the stage lights. You setting your camera at 5600k so that the candle actually has warm light is a revelation. I totally understand why that is the right choice for that candlelight seen but I'm still not entirely sure why 5600k works so well for concerts with stage lights.

[@kristianrefsgaard6576]

Brilliant. Just brilliant. Very helpful. Thanks!

[@SamHolland]

Hey. So glad it helped 🤩🙏🏻🎥

[@paulanderegg5536]

My go-to ENG "fix the ugly 3 chip Sony broadcast colors" solution I use in FCP, is to boost SAT to MAX, which really shows you an ofefnding hue. Grab the highlight color puck, slide it to the offending hue, then go DOWN and wiggle left to right until the colors look correct. After that, bring SAT back down to normal, maybe boost a bit since this process takeas a little sat out of the image, and you are typically good to go for quick news clips.

[@yourapocalypse216]

Super clear and useful explanation here, cheers!

[@BuildMontage]

Top video mate.. your series on this has been very helpful. I film a lot with rgb lights so not strictly making the white balance adjustment white is so true.

[@SamHolland]

Hey thank you. I’m pleased these videos are helpful 🤩🙏🏻 so true! 🎥 I have a video about using RGB lights too (not that you need it) kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZqSsl2Crl7pjbq8si=5rj0V7SxusmKEjgh

[@BuildMontage]

@@SamHolland perfect! 👌 I’ve watched that one… most of the rooms I film all have coloured lights which causes so much trouble as every room is different. Thanks again mate, I always learn something watching your videos.

[@yangfan66]

Wow~What a lesson~~~! Thank you so much! I'm a full-time creator in charge of our channel's production and so on, always struggle with color or white balance, your color vids are so good for me, Thank you again~!

[@SweetKitchenSkills]

On my way to 100000 subscribers, you are the one who taught me most about color-grading. It´s freaking difficult. Maybe one day I will get there. I really like how you explain stuff. Thanks a lot.

[@SamHolland]

🤩🤩🤩 I’m so pleased you’re finding the channel helpful 💪🏻 you’ll get there. Just keep going 🎥 thank you for your support

[@KysuneRSA]

This video has helped me so much ! that eye trick thing happens to me all the time lol

[@DaveUnreally]

I’m glad you mentioned that some colors shouldn’t be the color you think they should be under different lighting (white shirt in candle light vs blue light outside) I feel like most color grading tutorials I’ve seen try to erase the natural affects of color in the scene on the object of focus. You only really see that in commercials or stylized shots.

[@allen_bernardo_jr]

This is some good stuff 👏 👏 I think I could definitely improve on getting a more balanced image as a starting point and for matching shots, I haven't gotten that down just yet. I tend to prefer warmer tones overall, but I think sometimes I go too warm with my shots, and then when they don't match across different b-roll shots... tsk tsk tsk lol I'm gonna pick up one of those white balance cards that you showed on the lanyard, very convenient and I think very effective, I can just clip them onto my cage or camera strap etc. and set it up between shots 🤓👏👏

[@SamHolland]

Hey Allen. Thank you for watching 🙏🏻 Yes I also prefer a slightly warmer look too, but not too much saturation. I hope the colour checker card helps 🎥🤩

[@Xavier_Bear]

Grande! Fai dei video interessantissimi e ben spiegati! Grazie🎉

[@blertonsaraci]

Thanks man! 🙏🏼 Thats exactely what i needed!

[@SamHolland]

Hey. So glad this helped 🤩🙏🏻🎥

[@blertonsaraci]

@@SamHolland I just finished shooting a short! And i was thinking i am ny now beyonde WB lurning! But i am meeting strange obstacles on the collor page, wich they come from my wronge WB! 🤦🏻‍♂️

[@blertonsaraci]

Do you think you could make a similar video but about the mistakes one can do when PLANING to shoot low light? (not how to brighten an underexposed footage, but the mistakes one can do when planing to shoot on low light by intention, like making a Horrorr, or a detective mistery)

[@SamHolland]

@blertonsaraci1138 great idea 💪🏻🎥🤩

[@blertonsaraci]

@@SamHolland Awsome! Looking forward! 👍🏼

[@laurinbettermann]

That’s a great technique! Shot on two new lenses a few weeks ago. Completely forgot to set the white balance after every lens switch. The shots from one lens were all with a green touch. I tried to fix it, but I fall in the trap of my adapting eyes 😅. I regraded it with your technique and now everything is almost the same. I first thought that it’s very time consuming, but after a few clips you got a feeling for the sliders and then it’s easy. Thanks! 🙏🏼

[@PNWMOTION]

This was super crazy to see haha I literally just did an interview where I forgot to white balance before hand, this helped recover it as best I could haha thanks.

[@SamHolland]

Hey I’m so pleased this helped and came at the right time 🤩🎥

[@pauljakeman]

That comparison was great, and I didn’t blink either 😂 It’s great because this method doesn’t involve your screen being set up perfect either in a way. Great tip video. Back on top form again mate!

[@SamHolland]

Thanks brother 🤩 well done for not blinking x

[@pauljakeman]

@@SamHolland haha thanks matey! Erm Am I ok to blink now?

[@SamHolland]

@pauljakeman 😂 bit longer…

[@pauljakeman]

@@SamHolland well let me know when, my eyes are stinging and I think I’m starting to hallucinate 😵‍💫 😂

[@johnclay7644]

informative video thank Sam.

[@SamHolland]

Thanks John 🤩🙏🏻

[@8bitterror]

"Chocolate on it" 🤣 Super helpful video, and I love your humor! You got a new sub from me.

[@SamHolland]

🍫 😂😂 thank you! I’m pleased it helped. Great to have you here

[@lostartefilms]

Great video! You are spot on with your description of The Big Problem. What's the solution though? How would you white balance for stylized lighting setups? Thanks!

[@lostartefilms]

FYA, I watched your recommended video and the solutions wasn't there. Thanks in advanced.

[@sephimageryvfx]

Thank you

[@fieldsofgold775]

Thanks 🙏. Just what I had to see….this video.

[@Andy-ho7wx]

If not shooting RAW it is most recommendable to nail WB in camera since adjustments in post do not alter colors correctly if its not RAW. However, these tips are very useful if WB is off. Thanks Sam!

[@smalldeekgeorge]

I shot 12bit true uncompressed raw and still like to set it in camera it saves me hours of going through each video and tweaking it.

[@youyicunna9883]

Is the 8g macbook pro enough for video editing? Do I need to upgrade it to 16g?

[@AlexanderMarshallI]

Great video!

[@xxphactor]

I'm still using a Sony FS7 ll with the cines slog color space where they gives you only 3 predetermined color temps. So I have to rely on my experience and what I see in the viewfinder to get close. Also, I'll try to shoot some white or grey just in case.

[@ourdigitalbusiness]

Great vid - one question - what if my editing software does not have a vector scope? (seems to have everything else but that!) - is there another scope/meter that would work as easily?

[@SamHolland]

Oh no. I’m sorry about that. What are you using, and what tools does it have?

[@ourdigitalbusiness]

@@SamHolland I am using Power Directors suite of tools - it has the Histogram, the Waveform & Parade, plus color curves and color wheels similar to Davinci, just no vector scope.

[@Just_Samson]

2:46 oh there it is 😂 🎣. Jk, couldn’t help myself. Good vid.

[@UpWithMyDrone]

This is definitely me

[@Vinsta360]

Another really great video! Where about’s in the UK are you? I’m in York, guessing you might not be too far off?

[@coin777]

Does this also work when shooting in Mexico?

[@ricardoleon3020]

Do you have to use color check in every take ? Because maybe you move from The place to another place or maybe from a building in the corner to the other corner.

[@johnsaxz]

Yooo beautiful sound

[@dondouglas]

Your video is very interesting. I was a beta tester for Apple QuickTime virtual Reality (1994) and from being able to make panoramas I made my business based on high-quality 360s in museums. And there I discovered the same problem of "deciding" where the targets were. First I bought an expensive thermocolorimeter to have a reference since the colors of famous painters had to be respected, but the light in the rooms tended to be warmer, and even inconsistent. The same painting would be seen in one way printed on a photomechanical machine and another in the museum. The white balance of the books was "correct", but that corrected frame in a 360º context seemed very strange. So the conclusion was that the paintings should be seen halfway between the perfect white and the warmth of the museum. Also in night photos, respecting the environment, although the brain always does the white balance. Thank you for your video, it will be very useful.

[@EduardodeRegules]

To me, the most important tool of any photographer is the eyes, if you can"t trust your own vision, you're in problems as an artist. WB is only a reference, and loots are like copy/paste that you can actually make if you know exactly the look that you want.

[@NINETY-97-SEVEN]

I am always struggling with the part where you hold the candle infront of you. how would you white balance it if you are not aiming to get pure white? genuin question. the candle light is 2000k what should my camera wb be set to? Awesome video as always Sam! 💯💯

[@SamHolland]

Hey. If you set your white balance to 5600-6200 it should like natural. Do a few tests with different white balances and see which you prefer 🤩 it also depends on the look you’re going for. There are no rules. Thanks for watching and I hope this helped 🤩🙏🏻🎥

[@NINETY-97-SEVEN]

@@SamHolland alright, thank you! 😜🤙🏻

[@jensgaethje8555]

Nice explanation ... in photography, white balance is relative, which makes it difficult to quantify and adjust at times. Pure white exists theoretically at midday sun on an un tinted surface with no air pollution or diffraction whatsoever. Rarely the situation we photograph or film in😃PS as far as I understand, its our brains, rather than the eyes themselves, that do our internal auto white-balance

[@chrisklugh]

Outside, I've gone as far as trusting Auto White Balance. The only time I turn it off is if I'm indoors in a room with different color lights. But going back to outdoors again, trust it. Its good enough.

[@user-wz7nq9pf5y]

In fact, Auto White Ballance does a very good job.

[@smallbizdigitalmedia]

So for multi cam filming in a studio where all the lights are 5600K do I set each cam manually to 5600K (rather than set custom WB where all the values will differ slightly) and then use a vector scope in post to centre align the masked image of a white card for each cam?

[@SamHolland]

That’s a good place to start. There may be slight adjustments to each camera because of the way light is bouncing around in different places. You could use the set custom white balance for each camera too. Do some tests to see which method is more accurate. 🤩🙏🏻🎥

[@smallbizdigitalmedia]

@@SamHollandagree with this because when people obsess about exactly matching cameras they forget that the light and exposure will naturally be slightly different because of the different locations of the cams in the studio

[@vishfactz6007]

Everything just went above my head.

[@JStaRFilms]

I love your sound

[@jamesburne3893]

Can you do this with photographs?

[@BrianSellers]

Great stuff, man - I'd never seen an example of how our eyes really do lie to us. Stupid eyes... 🙄

[@SamHolland]

Thank you! Haha don’t trust ANYTHING! 👀 😂🎥

[@videoavanture]

I never, ever been focused on white balance and trying to make white pure white, I always look at the skin tones and try to match that, meaning that sometimes white wont be exactly white, which is even ok, because white on sun rays can reflect yellowish color.

[@smalldeekgeorge]

OMG THANK YOU!! I was going crazy seeing and hearing "professional" videographers and "gurus" talking about this perfect white balance and that white should always be white no matter what. I just stop watching this type of videos

[@smalldeekgeorge]

Also peace of toilet paper works amazingly good maybe cause it's not reflective

[@SamHolland]

🤩🙏🏻🎥

[@ambival1]

My camera has poor auto white-balance correction so I usually rely on tricks similar to the one in the video, but with some practical knowledge like knowing that the sunlight on a normal day is something between 5000 and 5500 kelvins and that having just one of the colors on the RGB histogram hit one of its sides is a very bad idea. I try to balance it in camera using the same histogram and then I slightly tweak it in post with the same method, since I'm still not quite adept at reading the vectorscope.

[@ParsclickTV]

i consider WB even more important than exposure because auto exposure causes less issues than auto WB

[@AllenRReid]

What about those of us who don't shoot in log? Do a lot of these principles still apply?

[@SamHolland]

Hi. Sure thing! Same principle applies… you just won’t have as much flexibility with adjusting the colours as log or raw BUT cameras are so good now that you can still colour grade quite well 🎥 hope this helps and thanks for watching

[@AllenRReid]

@@SamHolland Thank you.

[@JimRobinson-colors]

Just to add to confusion - SIMULTANEOUS AND SUCCESSIVE CONTRAST happen in video as well. The sample you first showed the skin or the white can fool our eyes because it's surrounded by greenery. If you ever happen to go to a color grading judge me type forum, someone post a person's face with a green background that has perfect skin tones. But like clockwork someone will comment that the skin is too yellow or too green.

[@SamHolland]

Exactly

[@lettochfilms]

First laugh out loud at 2min 30secs..............on form today Sam. Nice one. Not that your previous videos weren't on form of course :-)............I'll get my coat.

[@SamHolland]

😂 haha thank you! I’m glad these make you laugh 🤩🎥🙏🏻

[@lucianoag999]

I know! Blueish is higher temperature and reddish is lower temperature.( since it is based on black body radiation. The hotter stars are blue.

[@Filmmaker809]

Do you only use Divinci Resolve Sam and not Adobe Premiere?

[@whatwelearned]

He uses final cut what are you on about? haha

[@Filmmaker809]

Okay, well I don't use Final Cut. haha@@whatwelearned

[@SamHolland]

Hi. I use FCPX. I did used to use premiere. All the same tips apply it just may look slightly differently. I haven’t had the privilege of using davinci yet. Hope this video helped and thanks for watching 🤩🙏🏻🎥

[@Filmmaker809]

Thanks Sam. Its really useful though. @@SamHolland

[@frankinblackpool]

@@SamHolland Resolve is the future. The free version will do for just about everybody and you may never need to buy the paid-for version. The only down side to Resolve is that you do not need conversion LUTs. You can still use artistic LUTs, but Utility/Conversion LUTs are obsolete.

[@jonathanfatigate]

You're def nailing your skin tones, my man.

[@SamHolland]

Thank you. The lumix colour science helps 👌🏻

[@frankinblackpool]

If you haven't got a white card, then you could use somebody's skin colour. Skin colour, no matter the ethnicity, will always fit in the same part of the Vector-scope, just like white sits smack bang in the middle of the Vector-scope.

[@askabarberpodcast7660]

yep that was me

[@SamHolland]

You’re not alone

[@DEVUNK88]

well if everyone's eyes are adjusted to the colors they have been looking at long enough they could see my perfectly color graded and white balanced image and barf.

[@robertovivancosdp]

That's great but you're assuming that the jumper's colour is pure white :)

[@dredajoker]

Ok now we’re cooking

[@BLazLessons]

I'm actually more confused...if you set your white balance in the beginning, you wouldn't need to go back and find something white in your video, which leads to the confusion...do I have that?

[@10MinuteWorkshop]

Brit. ✅Speaks English ✅Talks sense ✅Uses FCPX ✅Subscribed ✅ Good stuff; be interested to hear how you get on with the editor you mentioned it in a previous vid - it's something I keep looking at but find the process terrifying. I'm 7 years into the KZbin experiment (different sector, woodwork & workshop) and 3 years full-time - my lack of colour grading and shooting log is clearly holding me back! 😬 Cheers, Peter

[@thomaswarren3784]

couldn't you have an led square that emmits pure white to test on

[@SamHolland]

That costs more than a card and also is inconvenient.

[@JoshGudgeon]

soooooo, use AWB? 😘

[@gwm-btdbattlesagar.ioandmo9988]

nope, this will cause your camera to slightly change, giving you harder time grading the footage. also white balance is a characteristic choice.

[@SamHolland]

😂👏🏻🎥 @joshgudgeon

[@Samhertzog]

You're right, that was a lot of P's.

[@SamHolland]

Too many Ps to handle!!!

[@1minutevideoeditingtutoria964]

Great video! Perfectly explained

[@blainemiller3451]

That suit is NOT blue!

[@dredajoker]

Im 3:00 in, still no tip

[@hamurabidios]

why do you pronounce the word "but" like "booooot"? where are you from?

[@johnnyc.5979]

Your color looks great, but your video is too dark. Really.

[@SexkeksProducts]

This is exactly, why I don't like Log-Profiles!