Outdoors Portraits, shooting in custom white balance worth it?

[ChrisAdval]

I just read an article from dPS - 13 Tips for Improving Outdoor Portraits . And noticed they recommended on bringing a gray card for custom white balance which I tried on my first outdoors shoot but the lighting just changed too much to really care and told myself I'll just fix it if necessary in post with my RAW file.

What do you guys think, is it worth the custom white balance when shooting portraits outdoors?

[zona5101]

if the light will be constant then sure it helps in post. When the light changes a lot like you experienced then i'd skip it. Of course there's the middle ground and that is just shoot the gray card and not set a custom balance...then in post use the eyedropper(in LR/PS) to sample the gray card for your white balance. You can throw in the gray card shot whenever the light changes significantly and it only takes 1/500 of a second - i'd go through that trouble if the color was particularly important (like a clothing product shot) otherwise not so much.

[sk66]

I agree with Zona on this one.
I generally don't use it. IMO it's only useful in stable lighting conditions.

[autofocus]

ditto on the guys above

[SusanH1970]

I use mine all the time outdoors. I have a small one that's on a lanyard and I just take a quick new shot of it if the light changes significantly. I've gotten so used to it that I get it done in a matter of seconds. I only need very minor tweaks in ACR on the WB when doing that, if any at all.

[PeaceFire]

I don't use custom WB. I shoot in RAW so it doesn't really matter in the end and I'd hate to waste any time tinkering with the WB settings as the lighting changes.