Behind the Lens

4.11White Balance On-the-Fly

On a tangential topic for television lighting, this month’s column will discuss color temperature—not just the basics of “tungsten” and “daylight,” but how we dealt with rapidly varying color temperatures while shooting a reality show. For the past 25 days I’ve been traveling through Canada and the US doing home visits for a show I’m producing and directing called My Hollywood. The show is a documentary-style reality series where we’re following kids (aged 8–17) who have dreams of making it in Hollywood. My two primary cameras are the Panasonic AG-HPX500 and the AG-HPX370, both shooting DVCProHD. We’re constantly on the move: indoors, outdoors, day, night, fluorescents, tungsten, neon—you name it, we’ve got it captured ...