The Kelvin values, presets, and custom calibration steps that keep skin tones consistent shot to shot and protect your grade.
White balance is the single setting that decides whether skin looks healthy or sickly, whether whites read as white, and whether your shots cut together cleanly. The camera has no idea what "white" is under a given light source, so you tell it, using the Kelvin scale. Tungsten bulbs burn warm around 3200K, midday daylight sits near 5600K, and an overcast sky climbs to 6500K. Get the number wrong and faces go orange or blue. This guide gives you the exact Kelvin values for common sources, when to trust presets versus dialing a custom number, how to survive mixed-light rooms where window daylight fights your tungsten lamps, and how to set white balance so it actually serves the look you want in the grade rather than fighting it.
Color temperature describes the color a theoretical black body radiates when heated, measured in Kelvin (K). Counterintuitively, lower Kelvin numbers are warmer (more orange/red) and higher numbers are cooler (more blue). A candle flame sits around 1850K, a standard incandescent bulb near 2400K, studio tungsten at 3200K, standard daylight at 5600K, an overcast sky at 6500K, and open shade or clear blue sky can run 7500K and well beyond.
Your camera's white balance setting is the inverse correction. When you tell the camera the scene is 3200K, it adds blue to neutralize the orange of tungsten. When you set 5600K, it adds warmth to balance the blue of daylight. Setting the wrong value pushes the entire image toward the opposite color cast, which is hard to fully recover later because it bends every channel at once.
Camera presets (Daylight, Cloudy, Shade, Tungsten, Fluorescent) are pre-baked Kelvin values: Daylight roughly 5200-5600K, Cloudy around 6000K, Shade around 7000K, Tungsten 3200K. They are fast and consistent, which matters more than perfection. Consistency lets shots cut together; chasing a perfect neutral on every clip with Auto White Balance (AWB) is the enemy because AWB shifts as the subject moves or the framing changes, giving you a different cast on every cut.
Manual Kelvin entry is better when your light source falls between presets or you want a deliberate warm or cool bias. Dialing a custom number from 2500K to 10000K lets you nudge the look while keeping it locked. The rule: never shoot a multi-clip project on AWB. Lock a single Kelvin value (or a custom grey-card balance) for the whole setup so every angle matches.
The most accurate method ignores Kelvin numbers entirely. Fill the frame with a neutral 18% grey card (or a white card) lit by the same light hitting your subject, then trigger the camera's custom white balance read. The camera samples that neutral surface and builds a correction tailored to your exact mix of sources, including odd fluorescent and LED spectra that don't map cleanly to a single Kelvin value.
Re-shoot the grey card any time you change location, swap a bulb, or the sun moves significantly. On a log or RAW workflow, you can shoot the grey card at the head of each setup as a reference frame for your colorist, even if you balance later in post. This single habit eliminates most "why don't these shots match" problems before they reach the edit.
Mixed light is the hardest scenario: a tungsten lamp at 3200K and a window pouring 5600K daylight into the same frame. No single white balance fixes both. Balance for 3200K and the window goes blue; balance for 5600K and the lamp goes orange. There is no neutral setting that satisfies both, so you must physically match the sources before the camera ever sees them.
The professional fix is color-correction gels. A CTO (Color Temperature Orange) gel on a daylight-balanced fixture or window converts it toward tungsten; a CTB (Color Temperature Blue) gel on a tungsten fixture converts it toward daylight. Pick one target temperature for the whole room, gel everything to match it, then set one white balance. Alternatively, flag off the window or kill it with blackout fabric and control the entire scene with your own matched LEDs. Modern bi-color and RGBWW LEDs let you dial every fixture to the same Kelvin, which sidesteps gels entirely.
White balance is not just a technical neutral; it is the foundation of your look. If you intend a warm, cinematic grade, shoot a hair warmer than perfectly neutral (set the camera 200-400K cooler than the source so it leaves in some warmth) rather than baking everything cold and trying to add warmth later. Conversely, a cool, moody music-video look starts with a slightly cooler balance.
When you shoot log or RAW, white balance metadata is non-destructive and fully adjustable in the grade, so set it accurately for monitoring and refine later. On standard (Rec.709) recording, the balance is largely baked in, so get it right on set. Either way, expose a grey card or color chart at the head of the take so your colorist has a known neutral reference to pull from before applying the creative look.
| Setting | Recommended | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Tungsten / incandescent fixtures | 3200K | Industry-standard warm studio source; matches classic film lighting. |
| Daylight / HMI / window light | 5600K | Standard daylight balance for sun and daylight-balanced LEDs. |
| Overcast / cloudy sky | 6000-6500K | Diffuse clouds shift cooler; nudge warmer to avoid blue cast on skin. |
| Open shade / clear blue sky | 7000-7500K | Subjects in shade pick up sky blue; correct upward to neutralize it. |
| Auto White Balance (AWB) | Off for any multi-clip project | AWB shifts per frame and breaks shot-to-shot consistency in the edit. |
| Custom WB reference | 18% grey or white card, re-read per setup | Most accurate; handles odd LED/fluorescent spectra presets miss. |
| Creative warm-bias offset | 200-400K below source temp | Leaves controlled warmth in-camera for a cinematic grade. |
| Mixed daylight + tungsten room | Gel to one target (CTO or CTB), then one WB | Physically match sources before the camera; no single WB fixes both. |
| Log / RAW WB workflow | Set accurately for monitoring, refine in grade | Metadata is non-destructive; lock a reference frame for the colorist. |
| Fluorescent / practical bulbs | Custom WB off a grey card | Discontinuous spectra rarely map to a clean Kelvin preset. |
| Reference chart at head of take | Grey card or color chart, 2-3 seconds | Gives a known neutral anchor before the creative look is applied. |
If you light with tungsten, set 3200K. If you light with daylight-balanced LEDs, set 5600K. If a window adds daylight to a tungsten room, gel one source to match the other and pick the single matching value. Most accurate of all is a custom read off a grey card under your actual mix of lights.
Not for anything you'll edit. AWB re-evaluates the scene as framing or subject movement changes, so each clip can land on a slightly different cast and shots won't match on the cut. Lock a manual Kelvin value or a custom grey-card balance for the whole setup instead.
Your white balance is set to the wrong Kelvin for the light. Orange faces usually mean the camera is balanced for daylight (high Kelvin) under tungsten lamps; blue faces mean it's balanced for tungsten under daylight or shade. Match the setting to the dominant source, or read a custom balance.
You can't with a single setting. Gel the window or daylight fixtures with CTO to match tungsten (or gel tungsten with CTB to match daylight), choose one target temperature for the whole room, then set one white balance. Bi-color LEDs let you dial every fixture to the same Kelvin without gels.
Less, because the white balance is stored as adjustable metadata rather than baked in, so you can refine it in the grade. Still set it accurately for accurate monitoring on set, and shoot a grey card so your colorist has a true neutral reference.
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