White Balance modifiers

[Paul_Ferrara]

I normally use a Kodak gray card. When outdoors I take along a Jobo color card which is gray on the back. Nice thing about this is it folds.

Paul

[dynamike]

Photo Vision's Digital Calibration Target

[JAM]

I use the warm cards and like em. They are a nice tool to have in your bag of tricks.


Model: Mia

[Paul_Ferrara]

Sorry but that's a solution in search of a problem. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] Or, how much money can we get these photogs to spend anyway?

Paul

[dynamike]

But Paul,

Just like your device, my target folds up nice. The middle strip is a grey card and the other two strips are white and black. So not only do I get to set my white balance, but I can fine tune my exposure as well. Exposure as white balance with one tool. How can that be a solution in search of a problem?

Mike

[R_Fredrick_Smith]

And it also makes a dandy little white reflector that I often use for putting a little extra fill into portraits. I wouldn't be caught with out my calibration target. In addition to using it for calibration, I try to include it in one shot of each light sequence or setting.
But for those who don't want to pay the price, you can make up a black/white/gray card in Photoshop in about 5 minutes and print it out. Just be sure to print it on Matte Photo paper for best results (you don't want something that is shiny).
Cheers,
rfs

[Paul_Ferrara]

Hi Mike,

A Kodak gray card also lets you set your exposure at a fraction of the price.

But most photographers I know don't take reflected readings in the first place. Surely you don't ask your subject to hold that before every shot? An incident reading is more accurate and a lot less trouble.

Paul

[R_Fredrick_Smith]

No it isn't used before every shot. It is used to calibrate the exposure compensation needed for the camera's meter for a given lighting situation. I generally do this at the beginning of each major change of lighting. I also use an incident meter. An interesting thing I've noted at a recent workshop was that with 5 people using 5 different meters there were 5 different fstops resulting from the same ISO and the same light set. I've also found that no two cameras seem to agree on the exposure setting. In my case, the camera I use usually needs about a 1/2 stop adjustment and my light meter is about 1 stop off what works best for my camera.

Shooting with digital is a lot like slide film used to be. You need to have the exposure very close. The other nice thing about the target is for being able to accurate push the lighting spike in the histogram as close to the right without clipping as you can which then moves the shadows to the right also and thus you get more information in the shadows. The gray card alone can't do this. The Black/Gray/White card makes it very easy. The target in question is 32" in size so it makes it very easy to do the calibration. It only takes a few seconds and then you put it aside for while you shoot several hundred shots (or whatever number).

But the target we're talking about is overpriced, that's for sure. So the other approach is to make your own. I have a homemade one also. I just created the three tones in Photoshop and printed an 11x14 print on Matte paper which seems to work very nicely also. I also have a 5 tone version which is interesting also, but that is another story.

Cheers,
rfs

[Al_Nowak]

Oops... A previous post already mentioned these cards. What the heck, reinforcement is the key to learning so I'll leave my post...

Warm cards are nice, but you can accomplish a similar effect for free.

Stop by your local home improvement store's paint department. They usually have a wide assortment of paint color cards. What you are looking for is cards about 4 by 5 inches in various shades of light blue and white.

You'll need the larger sample cards because you want to focus on it and have a single color fill the frame.

The blues will give you various warming effects.

The whites will allow you to set your balance to the available light. Try them and pick the one you like most.

It helps to draw a large plus sign in the center of the card for the camera to focus on. Use a black magic marker.

You can pick up some other colors to experiment with. You can get some strange effects.

At Lowe's stores, look for the Olympia Paint display, they have nice large single color cards.

All this assumes you have a lens that can fill the frame from a small card.

[Picturetker]

Thank you everyone for the excellent advice. Sorry its taken me so long to get back. I going to go with the paint samples suggestion for right now, but I'm holding out for the Photovision Digital Calibration reflector when the funds come available.

Thanks again for all the suggestions.

Jean-Maurice