sevencrossing said:
I have never used a filter but would guess a grey card would be more consistent

It depend on your post production on "Consistent". I did use a white,grey,black card when I used NX for the white, mid/color, & black point and it worked quite well but you have to shoot this constantly with any change of light color or otherwise. The "expensive" WB "caps" Expodisc and a few others are very consistent and doesn't change with the amount of light. I find it to be much quicker and a lot easier to do batch WB changes.

If I did a lot of studio, white,grey,black card would probably be more beneficial. At non studio or mixed lighting even with strobes, I find the high end WB caps invaluable.

With all of this said, one thing that is important to point out, if you gel your flashes, the WB caps neutralize that as well and finds a middle point that never looks right. That is where RAW is the best choice.

SkintBrit said:

I've noticed Grey cards come in two different % values, why and where would you use one but not the other? Is the filter over the lens approach always better than the Grey card in the test picture option?

18% is the norm but I dont think, most of us would notice the difference, if you used 25%

Back in in the dark ages, of 5x4 sheet film and manually adjusting YMC on the enlarger. I was taught to allways use a grey card

I have never used a filter but would guess a grey card would be more consistent

Thanks for taking the time to reply TTJ and donaldejose, I can't believe that after nearly a year I still haven't taken the plunge and bought anything, I think it's because all the bespoke options seem to be very dear for what they are? That's why I liked the scrooge option of making do with something I already own :-) it was only when trying this out that I learnt about storing multiple profiles in the camera, I didn't know you could do that. I wonder what else it does that I don't know about after 2 years of use!

I've noticed Grey cards come in two different % values, why and where would you use one but not the other? Is the filter over the lens approach always better than the Grey card in the test picture option?

I have been using this product with great success to take a custom white balance in gymnasiums.

http://www.amazon.com/ColorRight-CRPRON-Filter-White-Balance/dp/B0036UW4BY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1328217644&sr=8-2

One frustration with any custom white balance method: different light bulbs over different parts of the court so the exact white balance changes from spot to spot on the court. Since you never know where the player will be on the court you cannot get a precise white balance for each spot under each different light bulb and have to go with an average white balance.

SkintBrit said:
I know his products receive mixed reviews, but I have been using a Gary Fong collapsable light sphere for a while and have had some good results. Quick question.....I have found a YouTube video where he shows using the domed plastic top of the Phere as a means of taking a White balance reading. Has anyone any experience of how successful this is? I have given it a limited trial and it does seem to work, but what are the benefits of the bespoke products on the market?

I'll answer your question!
That probably would work. His products seem to be "neutral balanced" or care is given not to have any tint to them which is important. I still use Expodisc but have also bought a bunch of lens white balance caps from ProMaster which are not as "perfect" as Expodisc but are good enough for almost everything. Makes everything simple as well. They are cheap so loosing them is not costly either. I have used or tried almost anything in a pinch from tissue paper, styrofoam cup, white shirt, paper, almost anything. Some really have a "tint" to them that doesn't work real well.

I think even shooting raw, setting custom WB is more beneficial which with lightroom, seems to add more leeway for going for a "look" if that is your thing.

Only RAW, use auto W/B as per my post and like you rarely need to do much to it.

Only RAW and use auto as per my post and like you rarely need to do much to it.

Out of interest. Are people shooting jpeg or RAW are you setting the W/B in camera or correcting it in post

Most of the time I use AUTO on a D700 and very rarely need to correct it

for critical or difficult things I shoot a grey card then batch process in LR3

In really difficult condition eg flashing disco lights, I tend to convert everything to B/W in post

As mentioned in another post I only shoot RAW

This is probably not relevant SkintBrit (and controversial), but I bought an 18% grey card to do custom white balance with and found that - at least in a mixture of incandescent, low energy bulbs and monitor screen light, the D90's auto white balance setting did a much better job. I tried one of the filter type devices and found the results even further out than with the grey card. I don't have a white card, so I can't comment on that method.

I know his products receive mixed reviews, but I have been using a Gary Fong collapsable light sphere for a while and have had some good results. Quick question.....I have found a YouTube video where he shows using the domed plastic top of the Phere as a means of taking a White balance reading. Has anyone any experience of how successful this is? I have given it a limited trial and it does seem to work, but what are the benefits of the bespoke products on the market?

Thanks guys, hadn't thought about looking at YouTube.

I also purchased an ExpoDisc today at a friend's recommendation. Will report on how it goes. If you go to youtube there are a bunch of demos of people using it.

SkintBrit said:
Hi, this seems like a good thread for me to add my question too. Has anybody used the "ColorRight pro White balance filter"? If so would you recommend it, or am I better off just continuing to shoot in RAW and making any adjustments in post?

In the past I was using a Pringles potato chips cap that was semi-transparent, just it gave the correct results... but I'm not sure they continue to ship the same cap.

On a photoshop tutorial on YouTube I saw once an adv. for a color matching card that works on the two ways (White balance setting before PP and to fix it during PP).

The idea is that you do a shot of your subject by placing the card next to your subject, take a test shot.. then in Photoshop you have a color reference to set the gray, black and white points using the card and the color picker of Photoshop.

Edit: Search for Taz Tally Calibration Card (I saw this on a DVD related to Photoshop CS3)

Thanks Treckie! TaoTeJared also mentions using the Expo Disc system. I'm not familiar with that one, but I'll investigate. The proceedure you mention makes it sound exactly the same. I agree with your thoughts about it being better to sort it at the point of shooting. Thanks for taking the time to respond. :-)

Hi SkinBrit, The ColorRight Pro is similar to the Expo Disk that I have used with excellent results. Set your camera white balance to pre, put the filter in front of your lens and photograph your light directly. It works best to put your focus in manual when shooting the light. As for your other question, I see raw as a great way to recover from bad settings. The more you have correct when you click the shutter, the less you will fix in the pp.
Good luck,

Hi, this seems like a good thread for me to add my question too. Has anybody used the "ColorRight pro White balance filter"? If so would you recommend it, or am I better off just continuing to shoot in RAW and making any adjustments in post?

Hi,

@Nikoner If you have Photoshop, and just don't want to hassle with Adobe Camera Raw, I would urge you to give it a go. One touch white balance will change your life. That can be applied to a folder in one action to batch process a RAW to JPEG job seamlessly without any human intervention. Naturally, if you don't have Photoshop, it would be a money drain, but students get ridiculous discounts that you likely can buy the program with the profits from one job or use the program at your school.

Eighteen percent gray is completely dependent upon what light falls on it and is reflected from it. Direct sunlight, shade, even properties such as moisture (if a bag gets wet, for example). it may no longer have the same 'reflectivity' it originally had when new.

What I do - 'generally', is use the dreaded "automatic" and fix it post. It makes my life easier.

My best to all.

Mike

I was working tonight (shooting for TV with a Sony HDW-F900), and needed a white balance, but I had no white paper handy. I borrowed another camera guy's white card. It's a PortaBrace white balance card that sells for only $5.99 at B+H. It's 5" x 7" and made of matte-white plastic. Comes with an attached lanyard. It's a handy size, inexpensive, and does the trick. I'm going to order some for our camera packages at work!

I have a X-Rite Color Checker Passport that I use to WB all my color images. It is worth it with how much I use it. I had to get mine for a studio photography class and didn't think I would use it much, but now every time I go out I use it even when not working with a model just to get all the colors right.

You could also try setting it by kelvin... That is what I usually do and it never is "off"... Agreed on that camera bag though as there are times I need it...

yes, i wish the bags were too

It always annoys me that camera bags aren't all 18% gray.......

So then last night, I ordered the 4x5 delta gray card and Porta Brace white card (50 reviews on B&H, all good). I am going to experiment with both using RAW .

I avoid RAW because: 1) while taking a few series of burst mode in series the write operation slows down in speed, 2) half’s the capacity of my memory card, and 3) requires PP’ing. Most of which can be addressed by throwing more money at it, which I can’t afford right now being on a poor student budget.

the link that was removed was a babelcolor white target.

the best thing about using a good card (or target) is it nails the magenta-cyan balance (tint).

i agree kelvin temp varies with taste, but i don't feel that is true for tint. either it's true to the scene, or it's not.

when i whibal i sometime think, this was better before the custom white balance, so I choose as shot and go "no it wasn't". my in camera auto WB is almost always too cyan.

adamz said:
I would encourage You to use raw, as for white balance Itself, I use datacolor spyder cube, it's smaller than card, and allows for easy set up. If I need to nail the shot I use uniwb technique, but it's a pain in the ass, unless You have a lot of time for PP

That looks interesting!

That reminds me--I actually glossed over one of the huge benefits of shooting a gray card: as a color-correction reference! Duh! Shooting a gray card on a DSLR makes an excellent neutral reference for making later color-correction easier. Both Kodak and Macbeth make "color checker" charts and gray cards, which are often used in cinematography as a reference for the color timer.

So, for stills, I may actually start doing just that--white balancing on a gray card. I should still obtain an accurate white balance, and I'll have an accurate color reference! Good idea, Nikoner!

Okay, I just checked, a pack of two, 8" x 10" Kodak 18% gray cards sell for $14.95. I found that Kodak now also makes a "Gray Card Plus" that, in addition to a large 18% gray center square, there are also both a black, and a white "chip" on the sides of the card. A quick check at B+H's site reveals two more: an 8" x 10" gray card under the brand "Delta" for $5.50, and a 4" x 5" card by the same company for only $2.49.

Now I see what you're talking about--I see all those lanyard card sets with white, black, and gray cards on them. I suppose you could use them to aid in setting your clipping and black levels in post, I guess.