Why Is Auto White Balance Recommended for Pro Color 5?

[EddyMac]

Last night I purchased Pro Color 5 after having stumbled on it earlier in the day. I have a Sony A6400 with the kit lens (18-135mm). I am basically a novice pursuing photography and videography as a hobby. In all the reading I've done previously on how to get good video footage, everyone has said to never use auto white balance for video because as you move the camera or as the scene changes, the lighting changes, causing the colors to shift. So I was surprised to find when reading the instructions for Pro Color 5 that Auto is the recommended setting. What am I missing here? (I apologize in advance if this has already been addressed on this forum.) Do the Sony cameras lock in the white balance at the start of the shot and keep it there until the shot is ended? 

I am coming from a Panasonic FZ1000 and the learning curve switching to the Sony is pretty steep. I've done a lot of research--reading and watching YouTubes--and am probably suffering from brain overload at this point. 

Anyway, I look forward to receiving an answer to this, and thank you in advance.

[webrunner5]

Well video is about as hard as it gets. They make it look easy on TV or in some of the fancy YouTube videos but that is about as far from the truth as you can get. If you really look hard at good videos or movies most of the shots are blocked off. Meaning they are single shots of actors or scenes that hell might have been taken weeks apart, the other actors might not have even been cast yet.  So it is Easier that way to set up scenes, light them, and take WB, get focus perfect.

  But Auto WB has gotten better and better as of late, your A6400 ought to be pretty good at it. But you still can't run form a desert scene to a forest scene and expect it to react quick enough or fade into what you want seamlessly. You have to think ahead and figure if you need to trust auto WB or do it manually. In reality most shoots don't change that much unless you are driving through a tunnel or going from outdoors to indoors, or day and night.

 The whole trick to most of this is you have to shoot and shoot and shoot some more to learn your camera in all respects, how it all comes together and then you are still going to have to learn how to edit WB in your NLE because it is Never going to go perfect unless you never move from one spot to another. There are some pretty good Smartphone Apps out now that are good at Kelvin temps. On my iPhone I use one that is just called Light Meter. I also with my Sony use a gizmo called a Expodisc That you put in front of the lens to set WB on cameras that can be set. Works like an Incandecent light meter did years ago. You are not going to get even good doing video overnight; it is crazy hard to do.

[Alexis Fontana]

It must mean that you bring your grey card and do an auto wb on a scene to scene basis. Having your images Colorbalance changing during a take is a showstopper. 

[EddyMac]

Thank you @webrunner5 that is very helpful. After posting the above I discovered that the a6400 has a toggle to lock the AWB. So it looks like I can go to, say, the high school gym, allow the camera to find the correct white balance automatically, and then hit the toggle to lock it; that way it will stay the same as I film the competition and I won't have to worry about it. Seems like a really cool feature. In the Venice style there is a white balance adjustment for both A-B and G-M. I don't know how important those are but I guess I can test it out.

[webrunner5]

Normal cameras a WAY behind what Smartphones can do now. If real cameras were like phones we would be in really good shape. I doubt they will ever catch up. But mirrorless cameras have gotten a heck of a lot better, so yeah I think you can trust it if you lock it.

You are just going to have to experiment and see how it goes. There is more latitude than you think when it comes to WB. our eyes are used to seeing change so it is not as noticeable as you would think, but it is damn important just like focus and audio. Biggest take away is that you can't hurry video, it is very complex overall. To me run n gun is a dirty word in video.