question about grey card

[shingfan]

does grey card also help getting better exposure?.....or it is only good for white balance adjustment?

if i'm shooting in RAW......does it make a difference whether i use a grey card to do adjustment...or later on in the computer do RAW adjustment?

 

[ksmattfish]

Your meter measures the light to recommend an exposure that will produce a middle gray tone. If you measure off something black, it gives the recommendation to make it middle gray. If you measure off something white, it gives the exposure recommendation to make it middle gray. If you measure off something middle gray, it gives the exposure recommendation to make it middle gray.

If shooting raw there isn't a significant difference between adjusting the WB with in-camera software vs. out-of-camera software. You may prefer doing it one way or the other, but assuming your editing software is at least as good as the in-camera software, then the results will be the same.

 

[fmw]

The main advantage of using a gray card is to get around problems of reflectivity of the subject. The most accurate meters are incident meters because they measure the light directly rather than the light reflected from the subject. The gray card and a reflected meter is about as close to using an incident meter as is possible without actually using one. In short, it can do a better job of providing a better exposure recommendation with many subjects - like the aforementioned white and black ones.

I think white balance is best handled by computer software in the post process. I use Photoshop and it works quite a bit better than the camera firmware. Way, way, way better to be sure.

 

[shingfan]

The main advantage of using a gray card is to get around problems of reflectivity of the subject. The most accurate meters are incident meters because they measure the light directly rather than the light reflected from the subject. The gray card and a reflected meter is about as close to using an incident meter as is possible without actually using one. In short, it can do a better job of providing a better exposure recommendation with many subjects - like the aforementioned white and black ones.

I think white balance is best handled by computer software in the post process. I use Photoshop and it works quite a bit better than the camera firmware. Way, way, way better to be sure.

my problem is that i'm not able to tell if a picture has a color cast from the first glance....but once someone tells me...then i can visualize it.......so i'm trying to find ways to remove color cast from teh beginning....or process in RAW by adjusting the white balance......but still cant find the best solution?.....can you recommend anything? (or method on RAW processing)

 

[fmw]

Photoshop.

 

[Groupcaptainbonzo]

When you go on a shoot make your first image a shot of the Grey Card. Then when you get back to the computer / digital dark room or whatever, you have a reference. And you know that what evr corrections you apply to the image with the grey card should be applied to all the others...