Fundamentals CMCI 2001
The Canon VIXIA HF G40
Setting White Balance
White balance helps you accurately reproduce colours that are more vivid under different colour temperatures. For instance, the colour temperature outdoors under sunny skies is 5600 K (Kelvin degrees). To the camera, this colour temperature appears blue or blue-ish. On the other hand, indoors the colour temperature is typically 3200 K, and to the camera the lighting appears reddish.
You have to white balance to tell the camera what is supposed to look white under different colour temperatures. When you set the white balance for outdoor lighting conditions, the camera will apply more red in the image to balance out the blue; indoors the camera will apply more blue to balance out the red. White will appear more white and you'll have images where the colour is more vibrant.
A list appears with numerous white balance settings to choose from.
AWB - Automatic White Balance - the camera will determine the white balance, which is fine, but takes control away from you to reproduce colours more accurately.
Daylight (sunshine icon) - used to help record daylight lighting condition.
Shade (home icon) - to record in shaded places
Cloudy (cloud icon) - useful on a cloudy day
Fluorescent - warm white or cool white, or warm-white type of lighting.
Fluorescent H - records under daylight-type spectrum fluorescent lighting
Tungsten - when using tungsten (filament) studio lights
K - colour temperature - allows you to set the colour temperature to a desired value
White balance icons 1 & 2 - for custom white balance settings - lets you set the white balance manually to make subjects appear white under coloured lighting.
To set White Balance manually
Select either the White Balance 1 or White Balance 2 settings
Point the camera at a white object (a white card preferably) and zoom in to fill the whole screen with white.
On the LCD screen, tap Set WB to set the white balance value and reproduce white accurately.
