White balance is a camera setting that adjusts the color balance of light the you’re shooting in so that it appears a neutral white, and it’s used to counteract the orange/yellow color of artificial light, for example, or the cold light of deep shadow under a blue sky so that portrait shots taken in shade look more natural.
The Afidus time lapse camera system has a white balance adjustment built within the app. This setting is subjective to your surroundings.
If you are in a controlled studio then setting the white balance to suit your needs will be a matter of preference and what appeals to you for the end outcome.
From the App select White Balance
A selection of scene will popup. The summary of color temperature is as follows:
Per Afidus, Corresponding color temperature to each mode:
Auto
Daylight > 5500k
Bluesky > 8000k
Cloudy > 7000k
Fluorescent > 4000k
Incandescent > 3300k
Sunset > 2800k
In this video clip example you can see the difference from each white balance setting.
What does this mean?
Discover the change in color for yourself.
Here’s a couple more tips.
Take screen shots and review those screenshots on your mobile device. Which do you like? Then use it.
For controlled light situations you can consider:
As mentioned above, use a gray card or X-Rite ColorChecker Passport Photo 2. Take snapshop with the gray card or CheckerPassport, save it and reference that photo in the post editing process. Only advanced editing software such as Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro CC, DaVinci Resolve and a few others will be able to respond to color change.
Recording outside?
Remember light and weather changes throughout the day. This means it is best to use either Auto or Daylight setting as you may not want the yellow or blue color tint in your video.
You can read more about white balance within a beginners guide to photography here.
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