The Importance of Custom WB with LED Lights

We care about color. We’ve white balanced using the X-Rite ColorChecker Passport Video. We’ve calibrated our display with Calman Home for LG. We’ve aligned the color chips on the vectorscope with hue vs. hue. We’ve begun working in DCI-P3. So what’s next? ☺️ Have a look at the white balance in the two RGB parade screen grabs below:

The one on the left has a strong reddish/orangish cast, the one on the right is pretty close to spot-on. The one to the left can be easily corrected with the temperature and tint controls, but will take forever to get looking good. The one on the right requires minimal white balance correction in post and after quickly adjusting the color chips, skin tones are beginning to look natural. Both shots were made using the Lishuai C-700RSV and C-1500RSV LED lights – the only difference being that the one to the left was recorded by setting the a7s III to 5600K, whereas the one to the right was recorded with custom white balance. We’re almost embarrassed to say that we’ve been using the former method for years now – making us wonder how we were ever able to even get passable color using LEDs in the first place!