Setting White balance and shooting hockey video

4 Feb 2007 8:46 AM

scterran

I've always had the white balance set to auto when shooting indoor
hockey videos. Is it worth it to set the white balance in this
environment? If so, what's the best method of setting the white
balance. Most of the time during my hockey shoots, the video is dark
and grainy.

4 Feb 2007 3:04 PM

Andrew Rossmann

[This followup was posted to rec.video and a copy was sent to the cited
author.]

In article <1170578767.545556.291***@q2g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
scter***@hotmail.com says...

> I've always had the white balance set to auto when shooting indoor
> hockey videos. Is it worth it to set the white balance in this
> environment? If so, what's the best method of setting the white
> balance. Most of the time during my hockey shoots, the video is dark
> and grainy.

White balance refers to the COLOR of white. If whites look too yellow or
green or whatever, then your white balance is off. It should have no
effect on brightness.

For brightness, you'll need to check your manual on disabling automatic
brightness (f-stop?) settings and do it manually. The bright ice may be
fooling it, especially if you have lights in the field of view.

--
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8 Feb 2007 10:09 AM

Martin van derPoel

Hi There,
I have a similar problem whilst shooting Dance Sport Competitions as the
light are metal halide or mercury vapor, etc. and therefore not the right
colour.
There is some colours problems in the red and green spectrum..

There is normally enough light but when I video floorshows of dancing the
lights are not always as bright as I would like it, resulting sometimes in
dark video..

What I do is as follows:
1) try a different white ballance preset, like "incandesent"
2) if the camera can do it set the white balance manual, I do it on a white
surface (man's shirt) whilst lid by the "unusual" light. The idea is to
zoom in untill the whole viewfinder is filled with what should be white and
press the learn button.

I am afraid that the only way you are going to get rid of the grainy picture
is by getting more light on the subject or buying a better camera.

The picture being too dark could be due to the amount of light if it has
gone below the lowest level of light the camera will produce a proper
picture with, or it could be due to light reflecting of certain surfaces
making the camera think that there is too much light so it makes a incorrect
correction to the apteture. If this is the case and the camera has manual
brightness you are in luck as you can just switch to manual brightness and
adust the brightness, if this is not possible you might also have a
backlight setting, use thsi and see if the correction helps.

Regards,

Martin

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"Andrew Rossmann" <andysnewsreply@no_junk.comcast.net> wrote in message
news:MPG.202fb210e4448f9e989897@newsgroups.comcast.net...
> [This followup was posted to rec.video and a copy was sent to the cited
> author.]
>
> In article <1170578767.545556.291***@q2g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
> scter***@hotmail.com says...
>> I've always had the white balance set to auto when shooting indoor
>> hockey videos. Is it worth it to set the white balance in this
>> environment? If so, what's the best method of setting the white
>> balance. Most of the time during my hockey shoots, the video is dark
>> and grainy.
>
> White balance refers to the COLOR of white. If whites look too yellow or
> green or whatever, then your white balance is off. It should have no
> effect on brightness.
>
> For brightness, you'll need to check your manual on disabling automatic
> brightness (f-stop?) settings and do it manually. The bright ice may be
> fooling it, especially if you have lights in the field of view.
>
> --
> If there is a no_junk in my address, please REMOVE it before replying!
> All junk mail senders will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the
> law!!
> http://home.att.net/~andyross