18% Grey Card

FreeloaderJoe

FreeloaderJoe

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Joe
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Will a grey card fix magically all white balance issues?

I'm shooting 5d mk2 and the instructions tell me to shoot at something white for custom white balance. Does this mean I want to carry a white card or 18% white card around with me?

Who actually takes the time to carry around such a card for outdoor portraits?
 
The way I do it is to shoot a test shot with the grey card in the shot and then adjust the WB in PP by telling the software that the grey card should be 18% grey. There's usually a selection tool etc to do this.
 
FreeloaderJoe said:
Who actually takes the time to carry around such a card for outdoor portraits?
Click to expand...

I do. But I rarely use it, as even my outdoor stuff is mostly flash lit.

But just use the Lastolite Xpobalance. Black/White/18% on one site, 18%/+1 stop/-1 stop on the other, folds away into a CD sized pouch.
 
Many camera bags have an 18% grey flap - the lens cloth inside some Lowepro bags is 18% gray.
 
You need a 'neutral' target for white balance, with equal quanities of red, green and blue in it. The tone doesn't matter, so long as it's not over-exposed and blown.

White is usually easiest, as there's lot of pure white about - paper, card, white table cloth, paintwork etc. But 18% grey is also supposed to be neutral.

The inside of Lowepro bags is not 18% grey - my bags are about 2/3rds of a stop too light and a tiny bit blue, compared to my Kodak 18% grey card. I think they vary a bit. I don't know about the cleaning cloth Pudders refers to, but you can buy an 18% grey lens cloth - eg Spudz, from Warehouse Express. I like the look of the Latolite fold-up jobbie that Ed mentions.
 
FreeloaderJoe said:
Will a grey card fix magically all white balance issues?

I'm shooting 5d mk2 and the instructions tell me to shoot at something white for custom white balance. Does this mean I want to carry a white card or 18% white card around with me?

Who actually takes the time to carry around such a card for outdoor portraits?
Click to expand...

you can pick up pocket size grey/black/white cards on fleabay that is attached to a lanyard so you can keep it attached to your bag, belt, camera etc. Its about £10.

When you have started or finished one scene, just take a picture of the grey card, and then you can set your WB of the gray card for each scene in PP. Setting custom WB in camera is a complete headache, because you have to fiddle with it to change it for every scene.
 
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