White Balance Card?

[fengwei]

Any one using a white balance card (instead of a piece of white paper) to do manual white balance? I tried with normal print paper but sometimes found it's not so easy to use. Wanna buy a easy use and pocket size one. Anyone has any experience/suggestion on this? Where can I get one besides online order? And price?

Thanks for your help and cheers

 

[streetlite]

Try this: http://www.rawworkflow.com/products/whibal/index.html

 

[XXXcat]

Cool, but any idea how much it will cost?

 

[catchlights]

Cool, but any idea how much it will cost?

you scroll down the page and will know the price liao. but is in US$

 

[nightwolf75]

you scroll down the page and will know the price liao. but is in US$

hmm... prices have come down a bit, since the last time i checked 1 yr+ ago. plus, they got more sizes now! ;p

now costs anywhere from ard SGD60-120, excluding shipping.

 

[willyfoo]

Actually I prefer to use warm cards...
A set of warm cards come with varying degrees of cards from pure grey to different tints of blue... white balancing on them will give the effect of different degrees of warmth depending on what you want to achieve..

sgdavid might be doing an MO for the warm cards..

 

[fengwei]

Try this: http://www.rawworkflow.com/products/whibal/index.html

Hmm, this one looks nice. Any local store selling it? Might just order online if nobody selling it here

Thanks btw for the info.

 

[nightwolf75]

Hmm, this one looks nice. Any local store selling it? Might just order online if nobody selling it here

Thanks btw for the info.

http://forums.clubsnap.org/showthread.php?t=193859

sgdavid is running an MO now for warm cards.

 

[fengwei]

http://forums.clubsnap.org/showthread.php?t=193859

sgdavid is running an MO now for warm cards.

Thanks again for the info. How does it compare with the WhiBal cards for digital photography? Basically I prefer shooting jpg as much as possible (not much time to process all those RAW files w/2 kids around ), I guess some WB reference cards would help for indoor shooting.

Cheers.

 

[DR THE]

get the normal grey card work fine

 

[ricohflex]

Cathay has some cards
Maybe the cost is about $200

 

[CaeSiuM]

I uses the standard kodak grey card all the while and it has served me well. I shoot RAW mainly and am a Nikon user thus it's pretty straightforward for me.

Activate the calibration for pre-set white balance, and shoot a grey card, filling up the entire screen

OR

Just shoot a grey card and use the image as a grey reference. This might be handy because it allows you to use different images as the lighting conditions requires

OR

Shoot the grey card and click grey on Nikon Capture 4.

It's pretty straightforward and doesn't require expensive tools. Quantum physics precision is unnecessary, it's accurate enough. If you like it warmer, just push up the red WB point in NC4 respectively and up the blue if you prefer otherwise.

IIRC, Kodak grey cards are like $25 for a pack of 2x 8in by 10in size and 1x 4in by 6 in size at Cathay.

 

[Cheesecake]

I uses the standard kodak grey card all the while and it has served me well. I shoot RAW mainly and am a Nikon user thus it's pretty straightforward for me.

Activate the calibration for pre-set white balance, and shoot a grey card, filling up the entire screen

OR

Just shoot a grey card and use the image as a grey reference. This might be handy because it allows you to use different images as the lighting conditions requires

OR

Shoot the grey card and click grey on Nikon Capture 4.

It's pretty straightforward and doesn't require expensive tools. Quantum physics precision is unnecessary, it's accurate enough. If you like it warmer, just push up the red WB point in NC4 respectively and up the blue if you prefer otherwise.

IIRC, Kodak grey cards are like $25 for a pack of 2x 8in by 10in size and 1x 4in by 6 in size at Cathay.

i use kodak grey cards sometimes.:thumbsup:

 

[lewong]

Hi, can you guys clarify whether it is necessary to calibrate the white balance frequently? when do you need to do it and when do you use it? would that differ alot from the AWB? sorry guys, just alittle confused. tks

 

[lewong]

do you need to calibrate the white balance whenever the pic looks abit different from what you see (undersome difficult light condition ie.)?

 

[fengwei]

Thanks again guys for the 'gray card' suggestion. I thought about that also, but read somewhere that it's not very good for shooting in jpg but in RAW. IIRIC, a dark gray card would be a better solution for shooting jpg, is this true?

Now I mostly use any white subject in the scene to do MWB setting, then shoot. It works nicely sometimes. But would prefer some easily carrying reference cards if possible...

As to those warm cards, I shoot family (especially kids) photos only, don't like those warm colors that much. I like to see the nice skins of my kids as they are

 

[catchlights]

for taking white balance, any neutral color will do, so the color will not be bias to warm or cool. So white, light gray, mid gray or dark gray all are workable for white balance taking.

 

[solarii]

Hi, can you guys clarify whether it is necessary to calibrate the white balance frequently? when do you need to do it and when do you use it? would that differ alot from the AWB? sorry guys, just alittle confused. tks

Really depends on what you're shooting. Unless you're shooting landscapes of still life, its not practical to keep changing yr white balance.

Custom white balance is used mainly for studios or situations where the light doesn't change much. If you're doing travel photography, don't tell me you want to keep resetting white balance everytime the light changes or you move somewhere?

Are you having problems with yr white balance? I feel you're treating it a little too seriously. Modern day AWB in cameras works fine 80-90% of the time. If you shoot RAW, you don't even need to worry.

Professionals take the trouble to get white balance correct cos they do high volume work. They can't afford to correct images one by one. Even if they automated the task, its 1000X WB correction work. Do you shoot 1000 images a day, every other day? If you're a hobbyist and generate 10-20 good shots a week, just shoot in RAW and tweak. No need to fuss so much.

If you have one small garden, no need to buy a giant lawn mower. Small grass cutter will do. If you have to maintain botanic gardens, den consider a giant lawn mower

 

[lewong]

Thks for the clarification.