Reddit mentions: The best photographic light meter grey cards

> I guess what I think looks good don't really look good. lol.

welcome to the world of grading lol. This perfectly describes the past like four years i've spent trying to learn to grade.

As for f1.8, yea i did the same thing for the longest time, and just wound up with tons of soft footage. I also like the shallow DOF, but unless there is a reason, you shouldn't use it. Especially on a wide lens, for some reason people shoot like 28mm wide open. There's like no reason if you have plenty of light. You're not going to be able to get shallow DOF on a 28mm unless you're shooting full frame and your subject is like 4 feet away. Why even try? Just save the shallow DOF shots for when your camera is on a tripod, you have a long lens, and you know that your subject isn't moving.

White balance is an art of it's own. AWB can be good but the major danger of that, is that you're dealing with situations of mixed lighting that might change in mid shot. I always use manual WB so i know exactly what my camera is seeing as white. When you have mixed lighting and are using AWB, the camera has to "guess" what you want to be white. It will either take an average of both, or if one is overpowering the other, it will just balance more to one. If your bride is being lit by windowlight and then moves to be lit by some warm lamp,, you can see the issue here. Also, keep in mind that you have a bright white source in front of you almost the entire day: the dress. As long as it isn't ivory, you can manually balance to the dress. I keep a $7 white popup card in my pocket that i can use at any time. https://www.amazon.com/Lightdow-Balance-Reference-Reflector-version/dp/B00HT9MA1W/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1506634185&sr=8-3&keywords=gray+card

It generally ends up being daytime balance for everything outside (manually balanced to a grey/white card), and then the entire reception i use 3200K. ***KEEP IN MIND that 3200 may not work for everyone, because for the entire reception i am blasting everything with my 3200k lights, so i KNOW that the light hitting them is perfect white. You will have to modify this if you're not. One thing to keep in mind is that typical receptions have window light, and since they're in the evening, the light coming in might go from like 6000k down to like 4000k in a matter of hours. This is why i balance to 3200k, so i'm not chasing the color of the window light. I'm okay with the window light being a little blue, and during sunset, it tends to match the 2800k or 3000k practicals better. Either way, lights are essential for receptions. Even a couple of $50 LED panels will make a ton of diference.

Another thing that helps a TON is using window light and shutting off warmer indoor lights. for things like bridal prep, i go ahead and shut off all the indoor orange lights and just use window light so i KNOW for a fact that the only light that's hitting them is daylight and it stays the same temp.

Ideally, you want to manually white balance each lighting change/scene with a white card. Whenever something looks off or the location changes, i WB again. It's a pain, but you honestly don't have to do it as often as it sounds. The entire ceremony gets its own WB. bridal prep gets its own WB

Light meter: just my .02, but eventually get past phone meters and get an incident meter - for portraits, incident has always worked best for me. Sekonic 308 ($200ish) or a used Minolta Autometer III or IV - those were the pro standard for fashion and portraits when new.

If you use a phone meter but want incident readings, try a popup gray card and have the subject hold it in front of their face for a reading. At least you know you're getting an accurate reading vs. thinking what zone you want to put the skin on.

The RZ for portraits - 110 is nice, but get a 180mm as soon as possible - simply a glorious portrait lens. I used it for years as my primary fashion/people lens, lots of handheld with the RB - the RZ lens is very similar in rendering and mojo. The 250mm is also pretty glorious and man - compression, DOF... sexy mojo machine and often really cheap for the ass-kicking it can deliver (RB 250's go as low as $80-$100). You can also use RB lenses on the RZ if you want to get some good glass and find a deal.

I scan all of my RGD drawings and primarily work in graphite. I use a canoscan 8600f but I believe they have updated the model to the 9000. It works pretty well. Sometimes the dark pencils (the ole' 9b) can get reflective, particularly when you mix media and they are drawn on a dark surface. The only way to avoid that is to make a whole elaborate setup. Black felt behind the art. Studio lighting. Then you can spread you light sources so wide they won't reflect as much.

By that point, if you aren't working to large, it's easier to just scan and use a white balance card. Just include that little guy into the scan and use the black, white, and grey eyedropper tools in the "levels" settings in Photoshop. Any reflections, you can edit out to make it match the real values of the drawing.

_Dead's suggestion with the shade is the best method for shooting on a larger scale and don't have the resources for a fancy pants setup. Cell phones won't have the best camera for shooting the art but you gotta use what you gotta use.

Just remember, even with a white balance card, the most important thing is making sure the lighting is EVEN. Try your best to make sure there are no hot-spots of light because that is the most difficult to adjust later.

I can go into more detail on fancy pants rigs if needed.

I'd recommend a nice bounce/gray card combo like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015E3AQCO/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_JWfJBbBJA6JFN
It's important to be capturing the best color SOOC and this can be useful for a little more soft light in a pinch.
Save the rest of the cash for a heftier investment.

Since we're playing around with developing, I'd go with something like that. Your photo is under-exposed by a couple stops. I like the DOF you got on the shot though. What camera/lens did you use? You also should consider getting a grey card if you're going to do this a recurrent thing, they're very helpful for exposure and white balance. You can get cheap ones on amazon that have white/18% grey/black. You can get different sizes, and they're very useful.

I need to get myself a lightbox.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B012TI52FS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_y2c2CbJBMVASW

This is what I got. It’s small and fits in my camera case. Mostly comes out in oddly lit dinner scenes where I don’t want my sweetie to look like a lemon from the yellow house lights. :)

I have one of these and love it. Easy to carry around and use.

http://www.amazon.com/uWinka-Standard-Scale-White-Balance/dp/B009DXIHUU/

$11 for 2. So share with a friend. $5.50 each.

Well if you are in scenarios with lots of different color temperatures, your white balance is really just a choice for which source you'd like to be nuetral, wouldn't it? I think sometimes if scenes have multiple light sources, perhaps the lights are mixing, which could be giving some weird results.


How about just a normal shot in pure daylight, with daylight white balance, does that look right? You could do a test with shooting the daylight balanced jpeg and then shooting a raw version. Then in lightroom, use the dropper tool on a pure grey area to set a white balance and see if it looks the same. If it doesn't, you might have a defective unit. Maybe use one of these if you'd like to be extra precise! https://www.amazon.com/Calibration-Exposure-Photography-Included-Instruction/dp/B012TI52FS

Yup, that's why you need to have the camera spot meter the white balance off the focus point, and set the focus point on the center of the rifle. If your camera has the option, have the spot size be as small as possible.

Ideally, you would take an out of focus photo of an 18% grey card with manual white balance, then correct it in post. I'm sure /u/bcphotog can chime in.

A ColorChecker Passport might help. It makes it so you can nail the correct colors every single time. For something a less expensive, a simple gray card will at the very least make sure your white balance is on-point for each shooting environment.

I always carry one of these with me in my bag. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HT9MA1W/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Although I usually use the white side to good effect, it does have the grey side as well.

I'd start with +1 (and adjust from there). Most Caucasian skin is about 1 stop over middle grey. Your camera should have a feature that will blink if a region is over exposed (so you could keep raising it until, for example, your eyes blink then backing down a bit). You'll probably need to reduce brightness a little in post processing if that's your choice, but it should give you the most room to fiddle with contrast/clarity and color to maximize contrast in the range you're have the most detail).

Specifically I pulled the curve up a good amount. It doesn't translate directly to a change in stops, but for most of the pic it's between 1 and 2 stops.

I personally use a grey card like this:
www.amazon.com/DGK-Color-Tools-DGK-XL-Lanyard-White/dp/B007FH8MS8/
It's small enough to carry in a pocket, plastic so it's durable, you don't need that one (there are lots of grey cards of various kinds). When I had a Nikon there was a set white balance procedure that when activated would use the majority of the next photo to set the white balance (or could pick it based on the any picture you've already taken). The manual will tell you if you need to fill the frame with the neutral source, and it doesn't need to be in focus (i just hold it at arms length and snap a blurry picture if the lens can't focus that close).

As others mentioned, stopping down will keep eyelashes in focus.

Yeah I just use this one from Amazon. It's only $7.

https://www.amazon.com/Lightdow-Balance-Reference-Reflector-version/dp/B00HT9MA1W/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1520546885&sr=8-3&keywords=grey+card

Food shoots I'm doing right now for an online delivery service require this setup:

-31" double diffused softbox

-Reflector (I use one with a handle so I can attach it to a weighted tripod and set it on a chair. Not the ideal setup currently, but it works.

-godox speedlight->bowens clamp mount

-white balance mini-reflector

-speedlight

-a7iii + Nikon 55mm 2.8 micro

-2x cloth napkins

-Moleskine notebook

-Extra speedlight

i could attach tripod to my bag and fit everything, though I prefer to just carry it. I use a tripod as a light stand because it folds up smaller.

all fits in my 30L

You don't necessarily have to rely on built-in scenarios if you have a nice camera. I use this for white balance calibration:

http://www.amazon.com/DGK-Color-Tools-DGK-XL-Lanyard-White/dp/B007FH8MS8

Here you go!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00HT9MA1W/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1520049053&sr=8-4&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=white+balance+disc&dpPl=1&dpID=41yOhfVswsL&ref=plSrch

Edit: I use the gray side when shooting V-Log video so I can know the exposure value when using false color on my Atomos recorder.

Good question. I bought it on Amazon a while ago, so I don't know the specific one, but this looks very similar to what I have.

Follow up question: why wouldn't an exposure gray card work for WB? Are exposure gray cards that non-neutral?

My secret santa listed "18% gray card foldable 12" by 12" on their wishlist, and I have a couple questions:

Can I get a decent one for under $20 (our SS limit)?

Most listings seem to list "pure white" in addition to gray in the title - does that matter?

Is this what that is?: https://www.amazon.com/Camera-Balance-Folding-Double-White/dp/B07KTNLD3M/ref=sr_1_4?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1543161128&sr=8-4&keywords=18%25+gray+card+foldable+12%22+by+12%22

Try a white or grey card. Hold it up, in the light you're using and set a manual WB. As far as I understand it's a sure thing if you use it right, but I'm an AC on the holding side not the DoP's side.

You can use anything white, or you can get a specific 18% grey card (will arrive by Thursday with Prime.)

The camera will set the white balance for you. Menu > Camera Settings > White Balance > Custom Setup. Page 36 of the user manual. Point it at a white or grey thing and push set.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B012TI52FS/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I only use the grey card and for white balance.

Get a grey card and learn to use it during your shoots: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HT9MA1W/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_9W5XAbJF4KD4F

This will keep your white balance where it should be so you don’t start off your editing already trying to recover the photo back to a neutral.

I don't know if there is custom white balance available on phone apps, but getting one of these gray cards in combination with the custom white balance has made my photos so much better. I only have to adjust fill light and highlights and shadows.

Sample image

https://www.amazon.com/Anwenk-Grey-White-Balance-Large/dp/B074W1VF2Y

http://www.amazon.com/GENUINE-WhiBal-Certified-Neutral-Balance/dp/B004G3NW5M/ref=sr_1_12?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1425934278&sr=1-12&keywords=white+balance

I have this one at it works as advertised and is durable.

No, this has been strongly refuted with a paper cited 277 times so far.

One can put a green leaf on an 18% gray calibration card used in photography, take the pic, and analyze the pic in Photoshop/Gimp and see that most green light in a leaf is absorbed.

The above is a simple test that anyone can do.