18% gray card needed?

[ssnxp]

Do you use one? I'm thinking of getting one large enough for on-camera correcting, as I haven't delved into PP just yet. What do you think, necessity or not?

 

[IgsEMT]

In short, its a matter of style and preference.
There are times that I use it, and other times I don't: when lighting is really weird, then I preset it. If shooting with on-camera flash or umbrellas, then I'm either on sunny/daylight or 5560K.

All about preference

 

[musicaleCA]

Necessity, for a professional. I keep a Munsell colour card in my bag at all times so that I can use it as needed. Sometimes WB is important (journalism), critical (colour-critical work for a client, like product photography), or a doesn't really matter so much.

 

[ssnxp]

Is a credit card-sized one good enough to custom-white-balance on the spot? Or would I need something bigger?

I definitely don't have a studio yet, so I was looking for something very portable, but I've read that the pocket sized ones are too small for anything other than fixing white balance in PP..

 

[musicaleCA]

No, it's not good enough. To use the custom WB feature on the camera you need a card larger enough that it will fill the frame.

However that doesn't stop you from setting a custom WB that's shifted to blue/amber or magenta/green away from a preset.

 

[ssnxp]

No, it's not good enough. To use the custom WB feature on the camera you need a card larger enough that it will fill the frame.

However that doesn't stop you from setting a custom WB that's shifted to blue/amber or magenta/green away from a preset.

What do you mean one that's shifted from a preset? Could you please elaborate?

 

[musicaleCA]

I should be described in your camera's manual. Most/all modern DSLR's allow you to manually set a custom WB by starting with one of the camera's presets (fluorescent, tungsten, shade) and and moving away from that, and even bracketing.

 

[ssnxp]

I should be described in your camera's manual. Most/all modern DSLR's allow you to manually set a custom WB by starting with one of the camera's presets (fluorescent, tungsten, shade) and and moving away from that, and even bracketing.

Oh yea, I thought you meant something fancy.. like having your OWN preset from a calibration or something, and using that to fix the white balance. Sorry. You can tell I'm new here.