Help With White Balance Card - Glamour 1™ Putting the Glamour Back in Photography!

**PhotoDave1** · 07-02-2006, 12:38 PM

I seem to remember a series of threads about Custom White Balance and a couple of members had put up photos of what looks like a White Balance card and it was white, gray, and black.

Can anyone tell me what this gizmo is, what it is used for, how it is used, and where can I get one?

Thanks!

anderso7 · 07-02-2006, 12:44 PM

Here's a link to what I think you're talking about.

http://www.photovisionvideo.com/target.html

**Robear0001** · 07-02-2006, 07:56 PM

that's the one I got. I like it much. The only bummer was that the first time I used it I got a good histogram. Nothing to adjust...but my model still looked like a dog...Rembrandt, down boy...stay off the counter.

get one, you will like it. It comes with a dvd but the dvd looks like it is exactly like the video files you can download from the photovision site listed in the above post.

Have atter..

Later

Robear

**stevenD** · 07-04-2006, 12:36 AM

Hey Dave, I can help you with you white balance card... open your back door and fling it as far as you can..

Then set your White Balance to 6000k (color temp) and away you go...

cheers

**R_Fredrick_Smith** · 07-04-2006, 01:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevenD

Hey Dave, I can help you with you white balance card... open your back door and fling it as far as you can..
Then set your White Balance to 6000k (color temp) and away you go...
cheers

Of course you may have problems if the light you're using is not somewhere in the vicinity of 5000k. If the light is at 3400K and you set WB to 6000K you'll get poor results. If I'm shooting with studio strobes which are usually somewhere between 5000k and 5600k, then I sometimes use a K setting a few 100 above the strobe K to get a slight warming. But using 6000k as an arbitrary setting will not work across the board.

Cheers,
rfs

**R_Fredrick_Smith** · 07-04-2006, 01:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhotoDave1

I seem to remember a series of threads about Custom White Balance and a couple of members had put up photos of what looks like a White Balance card and it was white, gray, and black.
Can anyone tell me what this gizmo is, what it is used for, how it is used, and where can I get one?
Thanks!

I've been using a custom target like this ever since I went digital many years ago. I use the Photovision one because its the best and comes with a 1 hour DVD. By the way the DVD has about 6 times the material of the on line sample from the DVD. I would have given you some links to the several posts that I've made to G1 on the subject, but I couldn't seem to get the Forum search to work.

Essentially the gizmo (target) is shot full frame so it fills your viewfinder. Then you look at the histogram. You want to see three full spikes. If one spike is missing or clipped, then adjust your exposure and shoot the target again. When you get three full spikes and they are as far right on the histogram as you can get them, then you have the optimal exposure. However, you may still need to adjust up or down up to 1/2 stop based on the primary subject tones. This is all covered in detail in the DVD with a number of different examples. You use the final calibration target shot to set your custom white balance for the scene.

Photo of Dee with the target.

Cheers,
rfs

gvp25043 · 08-24-2006, 10:22 AM

I've been using the WhiBal - obtained from http://www.pictureflow.com in my post production several months now. It's quick, accurate and so easy to work with. I find it has been one of the best investments for accurate colour in any light condition.

**R_Fredrick_Smith** · 08-24-2006, 11:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gvp25043

I've been using the WhiBal - obtained from http://www.pictureflow.com in my post production several months now. It's quick, accurate and so easy to work with. I find it has been one of the best investments for accurate colour in any light condition.

The WhiBal works just fine and is easy to use. But I opted for the Target that we're talking about above because it lets you do all the things you can do with WhiBal, but goes one giant step further in allowing you to determine precise exposure information using the camera's histogram and the target.

Cheers,
rfs

RVMD · 08-24-2006, 11:51 AM

Take an 8 x 10 grey card. Cover 1/3 of it with white seamless and 1/3 of it with black seamless. Voila!

R

**R_Fredrick_Smith** · 08-24-2006, 11:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RVMD

Take an 8 x 10 grey card. Cover 1/3 of it with white seamless and 1/3 of it with black seamless. Voila!
R

That will work, although it won't fold up very well. The target I work with is 14" but when you fold it up it fits in a pants pocket (its made with a one of those wire frames that you twist up to fold up). The cloth that is used for the surface is non-reflective, so you get consistent readings. But if you just want a card, you can find them in the back of Scott Kelby's books for Photoshop for Digital Photographers.
Cheers,
rfs