How to buy the right White Balance Card for my Photography?

Question

I have been looking on eBay at white balance cards and I am afraid that I might not get a good 18% gray card. Some of the sellers card are a real dark gray color and others are a lighter gray. Some sellers have cards with white, gray and black on one card. And some sellers have many colors on one card. So I guess my question is does it matter if it is just a gray card or a card with the three colors or a card with many colors and is there any way to make sure it is 18% gray? Oh and does it really matter what size the card is? Thanks everyone!

I haven't every shot with a white balance card. I have always gone in and adjusted the photo to what I think looks correct or just use a pre set in Adobe Lightroom 3. But I have realized from research that if I use a white balance card that everything will easier for me when I have 100 or more photos of my subjects to process. I just want to get my money's worth and it be right.

You can check my photos out on facebook if you like. Fair warning though, I have over 1,000 photos. And I do have a few video's.

http://www.facebook.com/Ambrosia84

Answer 1

For colour balance it doesn't really matter what shade of grey the card is as long as it's neutral. 18% grey is only required when using the grey card for exposure, of course it's handy to have both in one card.



How you use them is to take one frame in a sequence with the grey card held in front of the lens, arms length will do.



Then open PS and open a Levels Adjusting Layer, select the middle (Gamma) pipette and click anywhere on the card, and your image will be instantly colour corrected. You can save this as a profile using the save button and apply that profile to any other shot(s) in the sequence Like this



http://www.flickr.com/photos/chris-judge/3747241022/



Heres the after screen grab



http://www.flickr.com/photos/chris-judge/3747241700/in/photostream/



Here's the difference it makes side by side



http://www.flickr.com/photos/chris-judge/3746453535/in/photostream/



The small plastic credit card sized grey card is the one I use, doesn't matter if it gets scratched as its the same colour all the way through, this is the true 18% tone too.



Chris



Chris

Answer 2

A true white balance card is not necessarily the same as a grey card used for exposure. The grey card I use for exposure is MUCH darker than my Whibal white balance card. The Whibal card is a precision item that will work wonders for correcting your white balance in RAW conversion software.



Check it out here, watch and listen to the videos and make up your own mind, but I can speak from experience that this particular card WORKS. Highly recommended!



http://www.whibalhost.com/_Tutorials/WhiBal/01/



steve

Answer 3

do no longer purchase R4 cos R4 sucks!!! Dsttwo, acekard2i, cycloDS, part...........those enjoying cards are the terrific! locate any of those producers in the event that they have for 3ds already. additionally, do no longer replace your 3DS, submit to in concepts that! as for me I extremely have 2 enjoying cards, part and acekard2i. they are the two astounding!