Which gray card to buy

The camera and the computer can determine which colors of light are being reflected more strongly by the card - and can make adjustments accordingly using a custom white balance.

I find my white balance results to be excellent when using the gray card. And you could buy a few cases of gray cards for the price of one ExpoDisk! To use a gray card, simply take a picture of it in the same lighting your subject is or was in. Use auto white balance and P Program mode for the picture.

You can either use the resulting picture as the basis for a custom white balance setting, or you can use the gray card picture during post processing for a custom white balance. To use the gray card as the basis for an in-camera custom white balance, make sure enough of the center of the frame is covered by the card in your picture to be properly read for white balance.

If I'm using my 8x10 card, I usually fill the frame with the card. Next, go through the menu to select that picture for your custom white balance. Finally, set the camera to the custom white balance setting. If you are using the gray card picture as the basis for your post processing white balance setting, the card does not have to take up much of the frame and does not need to be exactly centered. Simply select a point on the card in the gray card picture from your post processing software such as Canon's File Viewer Utility to be the basis for the custom white balance setting for all pictures taken under the identical lighting conditions.

Gray card pictures can be saved for later use as well. If you take pictures in the same lighting at different times, you can use an old gray card shot for future photo sessions. For example, keep a gray card shot of your church sanctuary to use each time your kids are performing.

Keep a shot of your high school gymnasium to use for all of your high school basketball photography. Get the picture? While the post-processing gray card method works well, I prefer using the in-camera custom white balance method. First, post-processing work is reduced. More important is that getting the right exposure settings in-camera is easier when shooting under strong non-white lighting conditions if a custom white balance is used.

For example, the lights in our church sanctuary have a very strong red color tone. If I shoot using auto white balance and use the histogram for exposure, I find that my shots are significantly under-exposed when I later color-correct the image - removing the red that pushed my histogram to the right.

If I would have shot with a higher exposure, I would have blown the red highlights. There are situations that a gray card cannot handle. If you are in an audience shooting a lighted stage, court, rink I often use a K Kelvin white balance setting.

This generally requires some trial and error to get the right temperature. I would also suggest as noted above a decent size piece of white styrofoam. I was using a white piece of paper and did frame just it. It was standard, multipurpose printing paper.

You did have the studio lights on, the white card positioned where the subject is and totally illuminated by the floods and the card filling the viewfinder, right? LOL, no problem because I am a beginner!! Yes, I had the lights on the paper and positioned where the turnings will be shot.

I should state that depending on the piece, the lights may be moved around a bit to best capture the wood's grain. However, all pieces are photographed in the same setup and lights.

Now, if you tell me I need to do a reading with every individual piece, well that stinks. But as was just pointed out, maybe part of the problem was using the paper for getting a white balance setting. Is it worth the hefty price tag? We take a look at the Cine, the high-end model in this series. The Nikon Z9 is the company's first camera to feature a stacked CMOS sensor, which brings a raft of new features, including blazing speed and autofocus performance to the Z lineup. Click through for our detailed first impressions of Nikon's latest professional ILC.

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For some users, this app alone might be worth the cost of the whole collection — find out for yourself in our review. The Nikon Z mm F2. Get all the details in our full review. These capable cameras should be solid and well-built, have both speed and focus for capturing fast action and offer professional-level image quality. Although a lot of people only upload images to Instagram from their smartphones, the app is much more than just a mobile photography platform. In this guide we've chosen a selection of cameras that make it easy to shoot compelling lifestyle images, ideal for sharing on social media.

If you're looking for the perfect drone for yourself, or to gift someone special, we've gone through all of the options and selected our favorites. We looked at cameras with selfie-friendly screens, wide-angle lenses, microphone inputs and great video quality, and selected the best. Submit a News Tip! Reading mode: Light Dark. Login Register. Best cameras and lenses. All forums Beginners Questions Change forum. Started Oct 7, Discussions. Forum Threaded view. Oct 7, Reply to thread Reply with quote Complain.

Hi, I use the Whibal card and I'm satisfied. Reply Reply with quote Reply to thread Complain. If a commercial product worked better I'd buy one.

KCook's gear list: KCook's gear list. I have a Kodak gray card and a Color Checker, but if you just want grey you can make your own. The technique described here is for Canon users. If you use Nikon, Sony, or any other brand, you will need to consult your manual for instructions on setting a custom white balance, though the process will be somewhat similar.

Note: If the lighting or direction of your scene changes, just repeat the steps above. All of your images will have an accurate white balance! It may help with organization if you start off any sequence of photos with the gray card image. This way, you will always know which image to use for a white balance setting. Many photographers use a ColorChecker Passport for this type of white balance process:.

So you can set up your entire scene, put the gray card in front of your subject, then take a single picture. Once your photoshoot is complete and you open up the images in Lightroom, the steps are quite straightforward:. Step 2: Select the eyedropper tool in your White Balance settings. Click on the gray card in your photos. This will adjust the white balance for a perfect result. Check the White Balance boxes, but leave all of the other boxes unchecked.

Now all of photos you took should have a corrected white balance! All of the techniques outlined here are simple and quick, yet they offer a huge amount of control over your exposure and white balance. And if you do, go ahead and practice these techniques! Test the gray card out for yourself!