What colour is your greycard?

[KIPAX]

Just a thought.. not sure if my brain is in overload.. But surely given the job a greycard does for exposure.. couldnt it be just about any colour bar black or white.. As in any colour that will produce a shade ?

 

[FruitFlakes]

Yep, it just has to have the same reflectivity as 18% grey. That's why you can meter off of grass and the palm of your hand (+1 stop, more or less depending on skin tone) and still get similar readings to using a grey card. Still, having it grey means it can double up as a WB reference.

 

[Pookeyhead]

I'd not use anything but a proper grey card for the same reason as above. Shooting the first frame with a grey card in shot gives a WB piont for the whole session.

 

[Siilver]

I use the colour checker, it's great
Pricey but great

It checks colours and the grey point all on The same card

 

[Cagey75]

I have never used a greycard. I prefer to adjust the WB using the K scale in LR, by eye. Right isn't always ... right.

 

[Pookeyhead]

I have never used a greycard. I prefer to adjust the WB using the K scale in LR, by eye. Right isn't always ... right.

This is true.. it's not.. but consistency is important, and having a known point to balance to means that you can balance them ALL to that.. then make global adjustments to all once they're all the same. Particularly important in sets of images.

 

[Krisstiffer]

My unsdertanding is that a "standard" grey card is 18% grey as that is what most camera meters are calibrated for.

By having this particular shade of grey the card can be used as a reference point for white balance, exposure level or both depending on how the photographer uses it.

 

[markmullen]

For exposure yes, for white balance no.

I too use Colorchecker Passport, fantastic piece of kit, if a little pricey.

Made shooting an event yesterday much easier.

 

[Siilver]

I got it for tech for product stuff, and it made a real difference to in getting colour correct
The software is brill