Grey Card

Artemis · Jun 28, 2005

I know this has been posted before but can I print a grey card instead of buying one, that would be so much easier....

Is it possible?

Big Mike · Jun 28, 2005

That would be nice eh? The problem is that every printer is different.

I guess if you had an accurate grey card to compare the print to, you could fine tune it to get a good one.

Patrick · Jun 28, 2005

B&H carries them. Kinda cheap if I remember.

Bought myself a 2 pack last year.

And for God's sake don't go though Adorama...Still dealing with the purchase from HELL with them. IMO

ksmattfish · Jun 28, 2005

The palm of your hand is probably 1 stop brighter than a gray card.

spiralout · Jun 28, 2005

Haha, it'd be more trouble than it's worth. You'd have to have your printer calibrated PERFECTLY. I bought a gray card from B&H a couple months ago. They're pretty cheap.

Lanrod · Jun 30, 2005

Gray Card......Been using my hand for years.....works like a charm.

J.
http://www.jasonlandry.com

DocFrankenstein · Jun 30, 2005

If you have your color management set up correctly, then you don't need to worry - it's gonna be 18% gray.

If not... I'd buy one. They're cheap enough not to worry about it.

If you spend an hour thinking about it, it just cost you 10 bucks.

wharrison · Jun 30, 2005

Kodak - at one time and, perhaps, still does make a nice Grey Card along with a color patch and a Grey Scale. I glued the color patch at the top of the Grey Card and the Grey Scale on the bottom.

The constructed device was great for copy work and many other photographic projects.

Hope this is useful!

Bill

selmerdave · Jun 30, 2005

I printed out a sheet of 18% gray a while ago, and it served me well in a number of situations. Having said that, I have since bought a gray card from B&H and it is quite a bit different from what I got from my printer. So you might get by with something from your printer but if you want to be precise it would be better to spend the $3.

Dave