I've just shot some video with the 550D in Full HD mode, 25 frames, with AWB on, but the reds are very red, almost bleeding. Admittedly what I shot was a Christmas play, with lots of red costumes and very warm stage lights.
Anything I can improve on for the next show?
Thanks! Jennifer
Yes I believe video uses the current picture style, so setting the picture style to one with lower saturation should solve the problem.
This is a wider problem with DSLR video due to the lack of Raw. To overcome this, and preserve the maximum amount of colour contrast and brightness editability people have created custom picture styles designed for video.
See this post on DSLR videos and picture styles:
http://www.cinema5d.com/videolog/?p=709
A "flat" picture style will help prevent "blowing" one channel, such as the red channel, although it may mean the resulting footage needs some tweaking to look good.
I would seriously check out Magic Lantern if you will be doing any serious video with your T2i: http://magiclantern.wikia.com/wiki/Magic_Lantern_Firmware_Wiki
From the site:
Magic Lantern is an enhancement atop of Canon's firmware that makes your 5D Mark II into the 5D Mark Free. It adds new features like onscreen audio meters and zebra stripes, as well as disables the audio AGC. It is an open (GPL) framework for developing extensions to the official software, tailored for film making needs. It does not replace the existing firmware, but instead runs along side of it. There is no need to "uninstall" it -- simply power cycle the camera to reboot to the stock Canon firmware.
This also applies to the 550D, but it has not been completely ported to that camera (I'm quite sad, as I was hoping for CHDK-like functionality).
Canon's AWB for the 550D (at least) is a bit sketchy, at least for me. Whenever I'm doing a staged shot, I have to manually tweak it so that it works and looks well. In the later firmware updates, they have said that they fixed some problems with the AWB, but since I just updated yesterday, I haven't been able to see much change.
Good luck!
If the camera AWB balanced too warm you can't do a whole lot in post besides remove some of the saturation. I've noticed on my T2i that it tends to balance very warm in incandescent light or when presented with large fields of warm tones.
In the future use a manual WB setting or even better, use the custom white balance and a grey card to get accurate colors before shooting.
Here's a decent walk-through on the T2i:
