WhiBal (White Balance Reference Cards) - A Short Review

[tomcat]

My set of WhiBal white balance reference cards just arrived today.

The WhitBal reference cards consist of a set of 4 cards - white, black, light grey and dark grey. These specially made plastic cards are great for those who shoot RAW (especially under complicated light environments) as they help to ensure that the pics are properly white balanced during conversion. Just shoot a frame with the cards in it under the particular lighting condition and proceed to shoot all other frames under that lighting condition at any White Balance setting. During RAW conversion, white balance the frame with the WhiBal cards in it and just use the same colour settings to white balance the other pics taken under the same lighting condition... and Presto perfect white balance !

This is a pic of the WhiBal cards:

And here is a test pic, Before and After white balancing with the WhiBal cards during RAW conversion. The pic was taken under the light from a PL type (Daylight) of fluorescent energy-saving bulb.

More info on the WhiBal reference cards can be found at this site:
http://www.pictureflow.com/products/whibal/index.html

 

[bigfatfish]

how much did you pay for those?

 

[kelster]

From the website....ship to S'pore....US$49.95...the cheepest options tat is...

 

[clive]

so its like...shoot then later convert?

conventioanl method is to fix a colour temp setting then shoot with that fixed setting ya?

 

[tomcat]

conventioanl method is to fix a colour temp setting then shoot with that fixed setting ya?

By that, I suppose you mean using the Custom White Balance mode of the camera whereby you shoot a white or grey reference card and use it to set the CWB? This way is more tedious and time consuming and by the time you set up the CWB, the photo opportunity could be over already.

 

[Nitrile]

this is not required for shooting with RAW.


edit: was referring to clive's post

 

[tomcat]

By the way, the WhiBal cards could be used for JPEG shooting also. I found the procedure in RawWorkflow.com's site. They suggest that:

"In Photoshop or other image editor, load the WhiBal picture that was taken under the same lighting conditions as the pictures that you wish to White Balance properly. Using the Curves, or Levels tool (according to what is available in your image editor), select the "Gray point" eyedropper. Click on the light Gray WhiBal card. The picture should now reflect the proper White Balance for that scene and lighting. Save this setting and label it appropriately. Now whenever you are editing a photo taken under the same light, load that curves or levels setting and that same WB correction will be applied to the new photograph."

 

[xl1]

for now im still happy with my kodak grey card, only $20 and get 3 pcs of the greycard

 

[CAMEDIA]

for now im still happy with my kodak grey card, only $20 and get 3 pcs of the greycard

Another alternative, go try a pringles cap or something equivalent. Works well for me all along and its free too.

 

[clive]

Another alternative, go try a pringles cap or something equivalent. Works well for me all along and its free too.

creative! :thumbsup:


yupz...earlier i was referring to custom white balance