Color Calibration Sheets

[ElizaMM]

Is a color calibration sheet of use when you're already using a grey/black/white card? Are they all pretty much the same? There seem to be dozens of them on-line around the $75 mark (not interested in anything more expensive) and I am wondering if there is color/quality variation from manufacturer to manufacturer.

 

[Strodav]

You picked a topic that is sure to get a lot of passionate comments on both sides. I shoot raw. I have both types of targets and use both. Most of the time I use a QpCARD 101 (adorama.com), which has 3 squares, white, 18% gray, and dark. It helps set exposure at a shoot and to adjust white balance in Post. Sometimes I use an X-rite color checker Classic with a 6 patch grayscale and 18 other color squares. I use this when I'm doing portraits. The gray scale helps me set up my lighting and the color squares helps me adjust for flesh tones in post.

At the end of the day, color is very, very subjective. My recommendation is to calibrate your monitor and photo printer, if you have one, do a white balance adjust in post if necessary then go for pleasing color adjustments, especially with the memory colors like flesh tones, but don't over process. Looking for exact color matches to the original scene is virtually impossible and not necessary unless you are doing something like catalog work, which is why a gray card is all that is needed most of the time. BTW, most people like slightly warmer images, so you might want to move your white point slightly to the warm size.