How to set white balance on a DSLR or cinema camera

There are three ways to set white balance on a camera: a preset (Tungsten, Daylight, etc.), a custom Kelvin value, or a custom WB from a grey card. For anything that matters - video, paid stills, anything you’ll grade later - use one of the last two. Presets are guesses.

The fastest workflow: meter, then dial Kelvin

1. Open KEV - White Balance Meter AI on your iPhone.
2. Point at the dominant light or subject.
3. Read the Kelvin value.
4. On the camera, switch WB to K / Custom Kelvin and enter the number.

Done. That works on every modern stills, mirrorless and cinema camera.

By camera brand

Canon (R5, R6, R3, 1DX, C70, C300)

• Press WB button → scroll to the K icon → turn the main dial to set Kelvin.
• For cinema bodies: Menu → WB Settings → Color Temperature. Enter Kelvin and CC (color compensation / tint).

Sony (A7, A7S, FX3, FX6, FX9, Venice)

• Press WB / Fn → Color Temp/Filter → set Kelvin with the rear dial.
• FX cinema bodies have presets A / B / C - store metered values for fast recall during a multi-cam shoot.

Nikon (Z8, Z9, D850, D780)

• Press WB → rotate the rear dial until K appears → set Kelvin with the front dial.

BlackMagic (Pocket 6K, URSA, etc.)

• Tap the WB value on the touchscreen → swipe to your Kelvin → set tint separately.
• BMD bodies expose tint explicitly - very useful when you’re correcting green LED light.

ARRI (Alexa Mini, Alexa 35)

• Menu → Image → White Balance. Enter Kelvin and CC.
• Three slots (CC, MM) for fast preset recall.

Fujifilm (X-T5, X-H2, X-S20, GFX)

• Press WB on the Q menu or the drive dial, scroll past the presets to K, then set the value with the command dial.
• Push right into the shift grid for the red/blue and green/magenta axes. Fujifilm’s tint control is a two-axis pad rather than a single number.

Panasonic (GH6, GH7, S5 II, BS1H)

• WB button → scroll to K1-K4 → press up to open the Kelvin entry, then dial the value.
• Four separate Kelvin slots, which is unusually convenient: store the key, the practicals, the exterior and a backup rather than re-entering between setups.

RED (Komodo, V-Raptor)

• Menu → Image → Color Temp, entered in Kelvin with a separate Tint field.
• RED records RAW, so this is metadata rather than baked in - but set it correctly anyway so the on-set monitor and everyone’s dailies match.

Kelvin by situation - a starting table

Presets round to the nearest cliche. These are closer, and they are still only starting points until you meter.

Setting white balance for log and RAW

The rule changes depending on what the camera writes to the card.

Camera RAW (RED, BRAW, ProRes RAW, ARRIRAW, stills RAW). White balance is metadata. Change it in post at no cost. Still set it correctly, because the on-set monitor, the director’s judgement and everyone’s dailies run on it.

Log (S-Log3, C-Log, V-Log, F-Log, Log3G10). White balance is baked in. Log is a gamma curve, not a raw sensor dump. A wrong Kelvin in a log file is a real correction with real cost, and log’s compressed highlights make a badly clipped channel harder to recover than in Rec.709.

Standard Rec.709 / H.264 / H.265. Baked in and the least forgiving of all. Get it right in camera.

The frequent mistake is treating log like RAW. Shooting S-Log3 does not mean white balance is a post decision - it means the shot is flat, and flat is not the same as recoverable.

Matching a second camera

Same Kelvin on two bodies does not give the same image. Sensor colour science differs enough between manufacturers to be visible on a cut.

1. Meter once with KEV. One reading serves both cameras.
2. Enter the identical Kelvin and tint on each.
3. Shoot the same grey card, in the same light, back to back on both.
4. Compare on a waveform or vectorscope. Camera LCDs are not calibrated enough for this.
5. Offset whichever body reads warm or green in-camera, and note the offset on camera tape so it survives a battery swap.

A mixed A-cam and B-cam from different manufacturers frequently needs 100 - 200K of offset to match visually. Find it once at the top of the day rather than discovering it in the edit.

When to use a grey card instead

The “custom WB from a card” workflow:

1. Place an 18% grey card (or pure-white sheet) in the scene’s actual light.
2. Fill the frame with it.
3. Trigger your camera’s Set Custom WB function.
4. The camera computes its own neutral point.

Use this when:

• You’re shooting product / e-commerce / catalog work and need bulletproof colour accuracy.
• You want a fast WB reset between rooms.
• Your camera doesn’t let you enter tint separately and you need accurate magenta/green compensation.

A meter is faster across multiple shots; a grey card is more accurate when you can drop it into the actual frame.

Tint - don’t forget it

Kelvin is one axis. Tint (magenta/green) is the other.

• Fluorescents and cheap LEDs push green. Camera neutralises with magenta.
• Some daylight and HMIs push magenta. Camera neutralises with green.

Cinema bodies and BlackMagic cameras expose this axis explicitly. Most stills cameras only let you set Kelvin - which is why a meter that reads tint (like KEV) is so useful. Set Kelvin in the camera, then dial the tint in a colour-correction node in post.

More on this → Tint vs Kelvin

Common mistakes

• Leaving Auto WB on for video. It drifts every shot.
• Using “Daylight” preset on a cloudy day. Cloudy is 6500K+, not 5500K.
• Forgetting tint under fluorescents. The Kelvin can be right and skin still looks sickly.
• Setting WB once and never re-metering. Magic hour shifts ~200K every 5 min.

The TL;DR workflow

1. Open KEV → meter dominant light → read Kelvin + tint
2. Camera → WB → K mode → enter Kelvin
3. Camera → WB → tint → enter tint (if supported)
4. Shoot a test of skin or grey card → verify
5. Lock WB for the scene

That’s a deliberate, repeatable white balance. Match it on a second camera and your multi-cam will cut clean.

Get KEV on the App Store →