White balance card??

[realitycheck3907]

Hey guys I read yesterday someone suggested to shoot a white card to get your white balance set, and then a grey card to get your exposure set. How do you do this? I understand metering a grey card to get set your exposure. But I dont understand the white balance part?

 

[beaminge36]

You take a picture of the white card in the same setting where you will be shooting that way when you go back to photoshop or wtvr you use, you can use it as a reference when you're setting your white balance for the rest of the shoot. Each time you change location you should re shoot your white/grey card to recalibrate for each situation. Hope that helps,

Nick

 

[Double H]

Generally, a white card = a greay card as a grey card = a white card. The main reason for using one is for white balance, not so much exposure, as that is up to you, the button-pressor.

 

[realitycheck3907]

Well the way I understood it is if your shooting white snow, or a black cat. You get your exposure from the grey card so when you shoot the white snow it comes out white or the black cat it comes out black. Am I correct here?
And the only way I know how to set white balance is to set it to automatic, incadescent, flourescent, sunny, cloudy, etc. I dont understand how you use a white card to set white balance. Or is everything i'm saying the same thing??
Sorry for the newb questions.

 

[Josh66]

I dont understand how you use a white card to set white balance. Or is everything i'm saying the same thing??
Sorry for the newb questions.

There are two ways you could do it.

One - just take a picture of it and use it as a reference in whatever editing software you use.

Two - take a picture of it and use it to set a custom white balance in your camera (not sure what camera you have so check your manual for how to do this).

 

[realitycheck3907]

It's a nikon D80.

 

[Josh66]

I'm a Canon guy, so I can't tell you how to do it off the top of my head - but it's probably not too hard. Consult the manual, or wait for a Nikon user to jump in.

 

[beaminge36]

for the most part, its usefull in post production software when editing your photos. You can use it to custom set the white balance on camera but thats if you will be shooting the whole day in the same enviroment. I feel its easier to just do it in PP rather then on camera.

Nick

 

[realitycheck3907]

So basically out in the field you really only need a grey card every once in a while to get your meter reading when you have a difficult subject that your camera will try and turn grey. Other than that not really needed?

 

[dhilberg]

It's easy to preset the white balance on a D80.

First, turn off exposure compensation if you have it on.

Hold down the WB button on the back by the LCD and rotate the rear command dial until "pre" shows up on the top LCD. Let go of the WB button, then hold it down for a couple of seconds and "pre" will start blinking. Put the white card in the same lighting as your subject, fill up the screen with it and shoot. If it says "good" in the viewfinder then you're fine. Otherwise you might need to do it again.

You don't need an actual "white card" to do this. Any white object will work: a white t-shirt, printer paper, paper towel, etc.

You can use a grey card also to set the WB. If I recall, the D80's manual says to use a grey card. I've used my grey card many times to set the WB and it works fine.