White Balance with Pick White and the RGB Parade

A tungsten-lit colour chart corrected on the scopes: the RGB parade shows the cast, Pick white on a grey step neutralises it, the traces line up and the vectorscope centres, then warmth goes back on its own layer, dialled in with Opacity.

Color grading tutorial · chapter 3 White Balance and Color Temperature Why casts happen, how Temperature and Tint work, how to neutralise a shot on the parade, and how to add warmth on purpose. Read the chapter →

Key moments

1. 1 Reading the cast , starts at 0:00
2. 2 Pick white , starts at 0:08
3. 3 Warmth on purpose , starts at 0:23
4. 4 Try it yourself , starts at 0:36

Transcript

Reading the cast 0:00

1. 0:02 Under tungsten light the parade splits: red rides high and blue sits low, even over the grey wedge.
2. 0:05 On the vectorscope, the neutral patches sit off-centre towards orange instead of on the centre dot.

Pick white 0:08

1. 0:08 Pick white on a mid-grey step measures the cast and sets Temperature and Tint to cancel it.
2. 0:14 The three traces now line up over the wedge, and the neutrals collapse to the centre of the vectorscope.
3. 0:17 A split compare shows the cast on the left and the neutral chart on the right.

Warmth on purpose 0:23

1. 0:23 On a new layer, a gentle Temperature boost adds warmth back as a choice, and the parade shows a small, deliberate split.
2. 0:31 The layer’s Opacity dials the warmth in or out without touching the correction underneath.