Grey card: maybe a stupid question but...

[patdavid]

Just a side note, but if the light is not drastically changing during your shoot, you technically can get by just fine with a single image of the grey card in scene (the same light as your subject), and then can just put it away. Then you can use that individual frame to balance your other images in your RAW processing software...

[ccting]

hmm i use grey card for both exposure and WB.

[scootermcq]

Originally Posted by Gulf Coast Girl

I do shoot in RAW, but I'm not the best with the software yet so I like to do as much right in camera as possible. All part of the learning process, thanks again

If I am shooting in a studio setting and have metered my lights, and set a custom WB, 99.9% of the time I do not use my raw images and just go with the jpeg (shooting raw & jpg). In the image below, I have not adjusted wb or exposure at all, those are SOC. I have cleaned up acne etc, sharpened and bumped contrast.

[ravncat]

Originally Posted by AHutch

One other point - if you are shooting RAW you really have no need to worry about WB since that is fully adjustable when you process the RAW image on the PC. And to a certain extent so is exposure. The camera's meter should give you a decent exposure (in most cases but not all) to work with in RAW, but WB is fully "adjustable" after the fact.

This is true, but if you are working in RAW, you'll only have the choices of using a preset, what the camera WB was or selecting from a point in the photograph (or adjusting by eye). Using a grey card and then selecting from that (in just one photograph) Will give you a very good starting point, which you can then use for other images in that light.

Ironically, I find myself using daylight alot, because I want to represent the color shifts that occur elsewhere sometimes.

[ccting]

How about test shot with grep card, then select the grey card in lightroom as custom WB?

[ravncat]

Originally Posted by ccting

How about test shot with grep card, then select the grey card in lightroom as custom WB?

This is what I just suggested as model use for a grey card. Just be sure that you reshoot the grey card if the lighting changes.

[AHutch]

Originally Posted by ravncat

This is true, but if you are working in RAW, you'll only have the choices of using a preset, what the camera WB was or selecting from a point in the photograph (or adjusting by eye).

With the Canon RAW software you can actually adjust WB in two ways. Either select any of the typical presets OR you can actually select a specific color temperature between 2500 and 10000. That's why I use the phrase "fully adjustable". (unless of course, I'm using older softer that no longer gives you this option).

[KimberlyH]

Originally Posted by AHutch

One other point - if you are shooting RAW you really have no need to worry about WB since that is fully adjustable when you process the RAW image on the PC. And to a certain extent so is exposure. The camera's meter should give you a decent exposure (in most cases but not all) to work with in RAW, but WB is fully "adjustable" after the fact.

Although technically that is true...why would you not want to get the best possible shot while actually taking the picture instead of hoping for the best later? I always try to get my white balance as close to perfect as possible in camera. That way I am starting my editing with a higher quality picture.

[AHutch]

Originally Posted by KimberlyH

Although technically that is true...why would you not want to get the best possible shot while actually taking the picture instead of hoping for the best later? I always try to get my white balance as close to perfect as possible in camera. That way I am starting my editing with a higher quality picture.

I could not agree more! And that's why a grey/white card is so handy! While I'm a huge proponent of doing everything possible to get the shot right in-camera, there will be times when you don't have that luxury. As an example, this past weekend I attended the Canadian International Auto Show and took over 500 shots. The problem was that it was extremely busy (being a long weekend!) and I also had my family with me. So given the fact that I didn't have a lot of time to spent on checking the white balance and given that the lighting changed significantly from car to car, I had no choice but to shoot RAW while at the same time trying to get the exposure the best I could, knowing that I could deal with WB in post-processing.