White Balance/Grey Card Recommendation?

[hdctx]

I've seen these from $5 to $150. What's your favorite product for setting white balance on your DSLR?

Thanks!

[Hanky]

Go to a used book place and look for National Geographic's "Photography Field Manual" but make sure no one tore the free card out. It's also a good read.

[jeeper]

I've always liked the WhiBal cards. Easy to use, and always gave me perfect results.

WhiBal

WhiBal &#45 LensAlign

[crazeazn]

I use an expodisc.

[texxter]

Originally Posted by jeeper

i've always liked the whibal cards. Easy to use, and always gave me perfect results.

whibal

whibal &#45 lensalign

+1

[Dobick]

I use this wonderful little contraption that I was given long ago called "my eye"

It works this way...

If I look around me and see that it is the sun that is lighting the scene, then I set my whitebalance around 5200-5800. If I am going to be shooting in the shade of that sun, then I set my WB to 6500 or more.

If I am shooting indoors, then I look around and see what kind of bulb is most prevalant. If it is flourescent, then I set my WB to the FL setting, if the bulb has a filament, then I go with something in the neighborhood of 2800 to 3000.

If I look around and see some strange color cast that is causing the shadows to go funky orange colors, while the highlights on the walls tend to be blue, then I just swag a guess and fix it later (only ran into this two times, and the gym was built by the same company, so I am sure it was the same type bulb)

Point is -- if you know that you are going to be tweaking the results later (and even when I have done grey cards I always tweaked later) there is no real need to be exact to perfect neutral white (especially if you dont really like neutral white to begin with)

[Dobick]

on a related side note -- my favorite grey "card" I ever bought was a 14"x14" lens cleaning cloth that was made at 18% grey. Worked wonderful for metering and WB when needed.

[Rson]

WhiBal. Plus you get these nifty youtube video's of some guy.

WhiBal White Balance Gray Card Video Tutorial by Michael Tapes

[jeeper]

Originally Posted by Dobick

on a related side note -- my favorite grey "card" I ever bought was a 14"x14" lens cleaning cloth that was made at 18% grey. Worked wonderful for metering and WB when needed.

I have one of those too, though I don't think mine is quite that large. Mine is probably 8 or 10 inches square.

[Buddha]

This question has been asked before, and I bought a Whibal card as a result. It's easy to use, but I find that as long as I shoot in RAW, I can set my white balance by eye and get close enough for post processing to handle the images. The real problem is exposure compensation, the same as when I was shooting film. Some surfaces just reflect light more than or less than 18%. As a result, I'm learning to read histograms to see if I have 'exposed to the right', or underexposed by one stop, or whatever exposure theory I may be trying out at the moment. So, reading into your question, you might ask yourself if what you are trying to avoid is really an exposure issue.

[BenE]

A white folder, such as those for placing 8.5 x 11 paper into, or a plain white sheet of paper. A white CD sleeve
Any white sheet of plastic,but never white fabric.

[texxter]

Originally Posted by Buddha

This question has been asked before, and I bought a Whibal card as a result. It's easy to use, but I find that as long as I shoot in RAW, I can set my white balance by eye and get close enough for post processing to handle the images. The real problem is exposure compensation, the same as when I was shooting film. Some surfaces just reflect light more than or less than 18%. As a result, I'm learning to read histograms to see if I have 'exposed to the right', or underexposed by one stop, or whatever exposure theory I may be trying out at the moment. So, reading into your question, you might ask yourself if what you are trying to avoid is really an exposure issue.

An incident meter will not require any compensation as it reads light hitting the subjet, not light reflected by it.

[Kalrog]

A white coffee filter in place of an expodisk. It really works (and works quite well) and I bet you have 250 of them in your pantry right now. Absolutely no harm in trying it out.

I have no problem at all spending money when it is needed or helpful, but when the results are essentially the same for sub $0.01 as for $85.00. I'll pick the cheap one.

[auddii]

Originally Posted by Kalrog

A white coffee filter in place of an expodisk. It really works (and works quite well) and I bet you have 250 of them in your pantry right now. Absolutely no harm in trying it out.

I have no problem at all spending money when it is needed or helpful, but when the results are essentially the same for sub $0.01 as for $85.00. I'll pick the cheap one.

Argh! Stupid non-bleached filters! Also heard that a white top of a Pringles canister works.

[Kalrog]

Originally Posted by auddii

Argh! Stupid non-bleached filters!

Haha! I actually had to steal one from work because my coffee maker at home used a cone one and the basket shaped ones are easier to work with.