manual white balance

[40mm f/2]

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What to use to set manually WB? Has anyone compared the WhiBal card with X-rite colorchecker grey card or passport? What is the minimal size to work with the M9?

[lars_bergquist]

What to use to set manually WB? Has anyone compared the WhiBal card with X-rite colorchecker grey card or passport? What is the minimal size to work with the M9?

I use an ExpoDisc. Get one that has a diameter slightly larger than your largest filter size. This is definitely the smallest solution available. The thing does always ride in a nook in my Billingham.

 

The old man from the Age of Tungsten Bulbs

[rebelfocus]

I use a small Kodak Grey card from the R-27 set. They are very inexpensive (around €15) and includes two 8x10" cards and one 4x5" card (perfect from a small bag). The grey side has 18% reflectance across the visible spectrum and is colour neutral so it can be used to set white balance or just to get a meter reading.

[a.j.z]

I just take a picture of a white surface (as the camera tells me), like a wall or a tablecloth and so far it worked well.

[Overgaard]

The WhiBal or X-Rite will work equally well. You simply hold the card so that it captures the light you want to adjust after, then shoot quite close to it so it fills the center 1/5 of the frame, then it's set (as it says in the preview image).

 

You can also use a white wall, a piece of paper, anything white or neutral like if there is grey concrete on the street.

 

But the thing for me i standardized, and that is the advantage the WhiBal and X-Rite has: That it is the came neutral grey you use each time, whereas white can be warm, cold, etc. When you know it is always the same grey, you have a standard and can departure from it at will if you feel it should be warmer or colder.

[innerimager]

I use an ExpoDisc.

me too.

[smoody]

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me too.

 

Another vote for Expodisc. It is very fast to use and it does an amazing job with indoor tungsten and mixed lighting.

[Jerry_R]

I use both, depending on situation:

 

- DigiGrey: Digi Grey

- ViviCap: Seculine USA Vivicap Colour balance tools

[40mm f/2]

I can see that an Expodisc should work well if the light is more or less homogenous. But does work in the shade? I can imagine that a balance card placed close to the subject will be more precise with mixed light but also more inconvenient.

[lars_bergquist]

The ExpoDisc does temporarily change your camera into an incident light meter (which also, not incidentally, can be used to meter colour temperatures). As with all such meters, you measure the light that falls on the subject, not the subject itself, i.e. you let the light fall on the meter/camera while you aim the meter at your taking position. Just like a handheld meter.

 

The old man from the Age of Selenium Meters

[ziggurat]

I usually use the colorchecker white balance card in the studio with daylight lamps. I've been wondering about trying the expo disc instead. I can get a really good accurate white balance with the card, but, as you say the expo disc is supposed to meter the wavelengths. So what I am wondering is if the expo disc helps to get a more accurate colour response from the camera as well as a good white point? Has anyone experienced a difference?

 

Regards

Ziggurat

[rob_w]

The ExpoDisc does temporarily change your camera into an incident light meter (which also, not incidentally, can be used to meter colour temperatures). As with all such meters, you measure the light that falls on the subject, not the subject itself, i.e. you let the light fall on the meter/camera while you aim the meter at your taking position. Just like a handheld meter.

 

The old man from the Age of Selenium Meters

 

Is it possible to use the Expodisc as a reflective meter as well as an incident meter -- what happens?

[adan]

What to use to set manual white balance? The "white balance" eyedropper in your preferred RAW developer.

[lars_bergquist]

Is it possible to use the Expodisc as a reflective meter as well as an incident meter -- what happens?

Certainly not. The light-collecting clear glass with the little 'domes' on it is backed on the camera side by an opal translucent white stuff. So it works as if you had a opal hemisphere as on a meter for incident light, but large enough to fit the lens. The camera cannot 'see' the subject through it. If you aim the camera and the ExpoDisc at the subject, the camera will measure the light that falls on YOU, and not on the subject.

 

Regard the thing as a hand meter that takes up very little space and doesn't need a battery of its own. The best thing since the Seconic Studio DeLuxe. There is even a cord on it so you can carry it in your shirt pocket.

 

The old man from the Age of Selenium Meters

[lars_bergquist]

What to use to set manual white balance? The "white balance" eyedropper in your preferred RAW developer.

Try that when the fluorescent energy saving bulbs come to Denver. They make everything lemon yellow.

 

The old man from the Age of Kerosene Lamps

[Jerry_R]

One more: CBL Lens Full Color Balance and White Balance Control System. Say goodbye to color correcting.

[ggits]

I have both CBL & x-rite. I find x-rite more convenient.

[Overgaard]

What to use to set manual white balance? The "white balance" eyedropper in your preferred RAW developer.

 

Ah ah, I have to disagree politely here

 

Firstly, if there's no neutral space in the image like white, grey or black, theres no place to set the eyedropper.

 

But more importantly nothing beats getting it right in camera. Even with a greycard in the image, you'll be asking Lightroom to adjust the whole scale of colors which is an electronic calculation that is done based on an image that is "wrong" in settings to begin with.

 

Using a grey card, or in worst case a white paper or a white wall, is so easy once you have learned how to. It's two clicks on the M9 and it's set. I always do when walking out the door or in a room.

 

(And having SET the white balance also means that all pictures from, say inside a room with 3200 Kelvin, are all the same whereas auto white balance and then adjusting in Lightroom require individual treatment of each picture)

[adan]

For RAW images (dng) - doing something in the camera has an effect on the image? Not my understanding of how RAW works....

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[Jerry_R]

asking Lightroom to adjust the whole scale of colors which is an electronic calculation that is done based on an image that is "wrong" in settings to begin with.

No, this is not true ;-)

Pls watch eg.: Digital Photography - How to Shoot Raw

 

Using a grey card, or in worst case a white paper or a white wall, is so easy once you have learned how to. It's two clicks on the M9 and it's set. I always do when walking out the door or in a room.

No.

Grey card should be used how it was designed - for exposure metering.

White wall - I really congratulate - if you will find exactly white wall in a church, room, hall, etc. If you want to use such approach (which I use quite often):

- or use designed for WB metering pattern (eg. CBL Lends)

- or white, not developed photograhic paper

Then you can measure light reflected from a subject.

 

Another option is using Expodisc or ViviCap - by pointing against source of light.

 

Anyway, it works only if you have stable, similar lighting condition. Imagine wedding: in one minute - you can start outside, then mix of day and artificial, ending with mostly artificial. On top on that, on some pictures you will see light coming from videographer too, probably different than halogens from church ceiling.

 

adjusting in Lightroom require individual treatment of each picture)

No :-)

Pls buy any LR video training. Quick and easy way to become more familiar with both: RAW and LR itself.

Or watch Digital Photography - How to Shoot Raw - there is a lot of information of LR too.

 

Best Regards,

Jerry