3 Tone Card?

Syx

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Sam Hissaund
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Got a 3-tone card (similar to this) free, but have no idea what it's used for... :shrug: Anyone clear this one up for me?
 
Take a picture of it and use it to set your white balance and brightness - depending on the camera (or software) you'll be wanting either white or 18% grey to set WB and having the triple tone should allow you to tweak your brightness settings.

Take a snap of it before you do your shoot then any adjustments you make in software later can be made on that image and copied to the others in the series.
 
Have a butchers at this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_card

Where did you get it from? I could do with getting a free one too, they're rediculously overpriced where I've seen them for sale :cuckoo:
 
Take a snap of it before you do your shoot then any adjustments you make in software later can be made on that image and copied to the others in the series.

Excellent, that clears that up! :thumbs:

I got a new Tamrac Adventure 9 from Morris Photo and one was in the box with compliments.
 
£8!! Blimey - when I got mine free they were £2, I didn't think much of it at the time but just discovered it forgotten in a drawer. I think I should start putting it to use!
 
£8!! Blimey - when I got mine free they were £2, I didn't think much of it at the time but just discovered it forgotten in a drawer. I think I should start putting it to use!

I might have looked at the wrong one, but they have a 3 tone card on their website for £8. Deffo worth using though either way :D
 
could you not make one?

seems easy enough

white square

grey square

black square!

I have thought about trying but then started wondering about the calibration of the printer to get the 18% grey.... and started wondering about the finish of the card, whether it had to be glossy or mat....and then Coronation Street started and I forgot all about it :|
 
I have thought about trying but then started wondering about the calibration of the printer to get the 18% grey.... and started wondering about the finish of the card, whether it had to be glossy or mat....and then Coronation Street started and I forgot all about it :|

but surely if it's 18% on the computer it'll be 18% printed?! I would have thought so, or all b/w work would be printed off a wierd colour!? And Matt surely or you'll get shine on the grey and won't be able to get the w/b right?

I'm gonna try, and sell em to TP members for £1.50 if it does work lol!


£2's more like it!

£8 is ridiculous for a bit of card in black, grey and white?
 
If anyone's got a LowePro bag, the grey lining of that is a handy 18% grey tone.... almost like they did it deliberately!

For scuba diving I use a white slate, take a snap of it at the depth I'm shooting at and then I can make WB changes later. Change depth, take another snap of the card (reds get filtered out more as you go further down so you have to keep on changing WB)
 
but surely if it's 18% on the computer it'll be 18% printed?! I would have thought so, or all b/w work would be printed off a wierd colour!? And Matt surely or you'll get shine on the grey and won't be able to get the w/b right?

That's assuming your printer is correctly callibrated
 
Use your own palm as a "pink card" and just set your exposure to + 1 1/3 from your pink card. It's free and you'll never leave it at home. That should get you withn +/-1/3 of a correct exposure for the light your palm is in. Just don't try to set white balance from it.

To calibrate for your own palm, pick a clear, sunny day, with the sun high in the sky and set your camera to manual exposure, f/16, 100 ISO 1/100. That is a standard "Sunny 16" exposure. Now, facing away from the sun, hold your left palm up in front of you and facing back towards you - i.e. palm facing the sun. Now point the camera at your palm (making sure not to cast a shadow over your palm) and take a meter reading from your palm. It will probably be +1 1/3 or very close. That will be your target exposure value (or meter reading) whenever you meter from your palm, regardless of the light conditions.

Of course, you can do a similar thing with a sheet of white printer paper. Just hold it vertically and calibrate it in the same way as I described for your palm. It will probably read about +2 to + 2 1/3 with Sunny 16 settings on a bright, clear, sunny day.
 
PMSL @ ^^^

Howabout creating an A4 PSD in Photoshop, divide it into 3 zones, fill the one zone with RGB values 0,0 and 0. Fill the next zone with RGB values 127,127 and 127. Fill the third zone with 255, 255 and 255.

Print it to the size you like jumbo, 5 x 7; 6 x 9; 8 x 10; A4 or whatever blows your hair back. If you do printing at a local lab, have it printed there...
 
PMSL @ ^^^

Howabout creating an A4 PSD in Photoshop, divide it into 3 zones, fill the one zone with RGB values 0,0 and 0. Fill the next zone with RGB values 127,127 and 127. Fill the third zone with 255, 255 and 255.

Print it to the size you like jumbo, 5 x 7; 6 x 9; 8 x 10; A4 or whatever blows your hair back. If you do printing at a local lab, have it printed there...

I thought 18% grey was 118,118,118.

I've printed this and had it laminated.

http://www.diyphotobits.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/diy-grey-card-copy.gif
 
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