Grey Card

excelglsi · 22nd April 2007

In this new era of Digital Photographic do we still need to use the 18% grey card? Currently only kodak are makin the grey card and its out of stock for quite some time... Anyone care to give their view ? Thanks

jmmtn4aj · 22nd April 2007

I was going to type something, then I thought, 'what the hell'

http://www.bythom.com/graycards.htm

Should be all you need to read

excelglsi · 22nd April 2007

Originally Posted by jmmtn4aj

I was going to type something, then I thought, 'what the hell'

http://www.bythom.com/graycards.htm

Should be all you need to read

Thanks.. say what u wan to say no problem...

Yatlapball · 22nd April 2007

Hmmm? I always thought we used gray cards to manually set our white balance. So why does thom's article keep harping on exposure compensation?

dreamtheatre · 22nd April 2007

Originally Posted by Yatlapball

Hmmm? I always thought we used gray cards to manually set our white balance. So why does thom's article keep harping on exposure compensation?

errr, this is talking abtu grey card. WB is white card.

maybe you read too fast

Yatlapball · 22nd April 2007

No ah. You can also use grey card to set a custom WB.

Maybe I'm too new, because I've not heard of using a grey card for exposure compensation. Heh. I use my eyes for that :P

theRBK · 23rd April 2007

a grey card can be used to set both white balance and exposure... and Thom in the article was covering the effects of the darkness of the grey card vs. the calibration of light meters, not about setting white balance... thus all that talk about exposure compensation

the grey card can be useful... if you want to be sure of exposure or white balance in a studio or a tricky lighting situation...

you can use it to set a custom white balance, but if you are in tricky lighting situation and want to be 100% sure, you should try to shoot RAW so you can adjust white balance in post processing...

on the other hand, a bad exposure setting is not as effectively saved in post processing, so a grey card would be more useful here... this is as a grey card is printed at a known grey value, and metering it you can be sure that the exposure recommended by the meter will be consistent... Thom was talking about how grey cards are 18% grey when meters might actually be calibrated for 12% grey, hence all his talk about exposure compensation (he is not the only one to say this)... but again, if you want to be sure, even with a grey card, its good to bracket shots...

22nd April 2007	#1
excelglsi Deregistered Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: CCK-Yew Tee Posts: 1,713	Grey Card In this new era of Digital Photographic do we still need to use the 18% grey card? Currently only kodak are makin the grey card and its out of stock for quite some time... Anyone care to give their view ? Thanks

22nd April 2007	#2
jmmtn4aj Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Singapore Posts: 996	Re: Grey Card I was going to type something, then I thought, 'what the hell' http://www.bythom.com/graycards.htm Should be all you need to read

22nd April 2007	#4
Yatlapball Senior Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: In God's Top Ten Posts: 2,249	Re: Grey Card Hmmm? I always thought we used gray cards to manually set our white balance. So why does thom's article keep harping on exposure compensation? __________________ my PBase(new)

22nd April 2007	#6
Yatlapball Senior Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: In God's Top Ten Posts: 2,249	Re: Grey Card No ah. You can also use grey card to set a custom WB. Maybe I'm too new, because I've not heard of using a grey card for exposure compensation. Heh. I use my eyes for that :P __________________ my PBase(new)

23rd April 2007	#7
theRBK Senior Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 1,807	Re: Grey Card a grey card can be used to set both white balance and exposure... and Thom in the article was covering the effects of the darkness of the grey card vs. the calibration of light meters, not about setting white balance... thus all that talk about exposure compensation the grey card can be useful... if you want to be sure of exposure or white balance in a studio or a tricky lighting situation... you can use it to set a custom white balance, but if you are in tricky lighting situation and want to be 100% sure, you should try to shoot RAW so you can adjust white balance in post processing... on the other hand, a bad exposure setting is not as effectively saved in post processing, so a grey card would be more useful here... this is as a grey card is printed at a known grey value, and metering it you can be sure that the exposure recommended by the meter will be consistent... Thom was talking about how grey cards are 18% grey when meters might actually be calibrated for 12% grey, hence all his talk about exposure compensation (he is not the only one to say this)... but again, if you want to be sure, even with a grey card, its good to bracket shots... Last edited by theRBK; 23rd April 2007 at 12:57 AM.