I've heard of grey cards, but wasn't sure how to use them - definitely something else to look into.
You might find this interesting,
Grey or white card for neutral balancing. As it is so easy to over-expose a white card, I use both white and grey. If the white is over-exposed I can then use the grey.
Grey and white cards used for neutral balance reference shot by
gardenersassistant, on Flickr
Incidentally, it doesn't matter the reference shot is in focus. Better if it isn't quite possibly.
In Lightroom I go to the reference shot and use the eyedropper (White Balance Selector) on the white or grey card to set the white balance. I then select all the images I want to apply that white balance to (in addition to having the reference shot selected), and then use the Sync button to transfer that white balance to all of the selected images.
Like the histogram, I treat a grey card white balance setting as a suggestion/starting point, not as the definitive, "correct" white balance. This is for several reasons.
- The scene may not all have the same white balance. It's not just indoors with mixtures of natural and artificial lighting, but outdoors some of the scene may be sunny and some in the shade, or you may be standing (and taking your white balance reference shot) in the sun while shooting something in the shade.
- Especially with macro/close-ups, there may be environmental colour casts, with light being reflected off of and transmitted through materials of various colours. Where there is a colour cast, do you really want to arrange it so that a white surface shows up as white in your photo? That may be the "actual", "real", "underlying", "essential" colour, but it isn't the colour you see if looking at the white surface illuminated by greenish light (or pinkish, or yellowish...) Opinions vary about this. My preference is that if the scene had a colour cast then I'm fine with that, unless I find it visually offputting, in which case I'll alter it. This isn't consistent of course, but consistency isn't one of my criteria!
- Even without the complications of colour casts or mixed illumination, the "correct" white balance may simply look wrong or unappealing to me. If so, I'll change it.
I shoot RAW, so do have plenty of room to play with images afterwards, it's more my indecision that's the problem! It's about 18 months or so that I've been using my camera with more creative control, so hopefully as I go on I'll find the decision making a little easier and find more of my own style.
I'm sure you will. FWIW though, quite apart from different people having different preferences about colour, if you are anything like me then even to your own eyes there may sometimes not be a "best" option in terms of colour rendition. Sometimes I can like two, or more, rather different renditions (and it's not just colour that might differ), liking different aspects of the different versions.
I'm with you on going light on contrast/sharpening - it was the first edits that I felt were like this. But as everything it's all personal taste and I'm sure many of my images look wishy washy or soft to others.
I am absolutely convinced that my images come across that way to many people who much prefer a stronger immediate impact, with greater contrast and stronger colours.
On sharpening, I must plead guilty to excessive sharpening. I know my images, especially insects and spiders, are not realistic because of all the sharpening I apply to them. But I've always said that what I'm interested in is producing "pretty pictures" if I can, and that look of "seeing more detail than you could actually see directly" appeals to my sensibilities. It's a bit hyper/surreal or whatever, but FWIW it's a look a like (for insects and spiders).
Thanks again for all your advice - it's been really helpful.
It's a pleasure, and for my part at least often highly instructive, to have substantive discussions about these things rather than simply finding nice things to say about one anothers' images. (Nothing wrong in that btw - I'm all for encouraging others and I try to do that myself; for some posts even simple encouraging comments have perhaps been a bit thin on the ground here recently, or perhaps that is my imagination. But anyway, I do like it when the discussion gets more detailed.)
