white balance card

[Danny Hays]

Some people use different color temperature lights to get like possibly a warmer look in the skin tone for like keying someone in an late afternoon out door scene, or a cooler look to key someone in a winter scene. I would think a variety set of white balance cards cards could be used in the same way. Checkout this link on white balancing.
https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/white-balance.htm

Hope this helps, Danny Hays

[Stephen Mann]

For white balance, white and gray are the same.

Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com

[Danny Hays]

So your saying it makes no difference white balancing with a grey card? At some point it wont work for white balancing. Try doing it with a black card.

[Stephen Mann]

In theory, you could white balance on a black card. All that’s required is a neutral card. 255,255,255 is just as neutral as 128,128,128 – and the camera doesn’t care because to white balance, all the camera wants to do is make the RGB levels equal – thus “Balanced”.

Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com

[Danny Hays]

I’ll have to try that. Finding a real or close to, black object to set to could make things easier, in a pinch when there’s not a real white surface to use. Have you tried this?

[Matt Crowley]

A dark grey or near-black object would theoretically allow white-balance to be set (because there’s no hue to it), but the camera will have a harder job forming a decent noise-free picture on a dark object. Matt bright white would be best, particularly if the available light is dim, or a light neutral grey.

[Bob Peterson]

I have my assistant hold the white board at the speaker’s position. First, I focus on the assistant’s face and then turn off auto focus. The assistant then holds up the white board, and I perform the white balance adjustment. That procedure is intended to insure that the camera has the white board in focus.

[Gilles Gagnon]

Thanks Bob,

I like the idea of focusing on the subject’s face. I’ve found it difficult to focus on the my “current” small white card, with no reference to focus on except… snow white.

Gilles

[Norman Willis]

Hi Steve.

I appreciate your knowledge and expertise.

If white is the same as grey, then why do pro photographers use grey?

Actually, maybe I should start a new thread, since this one is kind of old? (Or is that not preferable?)

[Norman Willis]

Sorry, I don’t mean to ask stupid questions. Maybe it is just because there are so many different ‘colors’ of white…and maybe they can make grey more uniform?

I guess I should just get a grey card and experiment.

Norman Willis
http://www.nazareneisrael.org