best way to whitebalance in LR? From a grey card or white card?

[wrightm]

Hello,
When going out to shoot, I have been putting in a 18% grey card in my test shots and white balance off them in post production in LR.
Would a whitecard in the scene have the same/better/different effect when you white balance off it? I shoot on auto white balance in camera. I do not use the manual white balance feature in camera. I feel auto usually does a good job; but for those difficult lighting situations, I find it greatly increases post-production workflow if I quickly throw a greycard in there, just in case.

Which is the best way to get spot on perfect white balance - grey or white card?
thx,
M

 

[Brad Snyder]

From what I've read, I believe a properly exposed white card is better for WB.

 

[Mark Sirota]

Two issues:

(1) grey cards are normally designed for exposure, not white balance. They may not be truly neutral unless they're explicitly designed to be neutral.

(2) Brighter neutral tones are better, because there's more resolution in the brighter zones (read up on Expose To The Right, or ETTR, for the explanation). Also, the signal-to-noise ratio is better in bright areas, so noise is less likely to fake out the WB dropper. That said, this is a very minor issue; may not make any meaningful difference in practice except for very noisy images.

 

[Bruce J]

By all means, use something that's intended for white balance. Grey cards and white pieces of paper are NOT color balanced. I've been using a small WhiBal for a couple years and am delighted with it. Easy to carry around and use with any camera/lens combination, and it's nearly indestructible. Great product!

 

[pendtech]

Thanks I've been using white pieces of paper for a while now. I will now invest in some White Balance type media. Thank you for this. I did not know there would be a difference and thought it was just a money-making ploy.

 

[wrightm]

money making ploy

I've heard the same from a lot of places that the whibal card is just a money making ploy and it makes perfect sense. It's black, white and grey sometimes. Since all photography metering is based off of a 18% greycard, I am told that this is the most accurate way to achieve color and exposure balance.....and it's a fraction of the price.

 

[Bruce J]

I don't know who told you that an 18% grey card is as good as a properly balanced tool like a WhiBal, but someone is apparently confused between exposure values and white balance. An 18% grey card is fine for setting exposure; that's all it was ever intended for. But, it's not fine for setting white balance, if you care about accuracy. Think of it this way, would you use an 18% green card to set white balace? Doesn't make sense does it? Well, that's exactly what you are doing with a grey card, only to a lesser extent. Because the 18% card was never intended for the purpose, it's not actually pure grey; that is, the reflectance of red, green, and blue are not equal. If you care about that level of detail, then you need to use some tool that's intended for the purpose. I happen to use a WhiBal when I care about that and think it's a fine product. There are many other similar products on the market and I doubt that it matters much which you use, if it's truly grey.

If you doubt that this is true, borrow a WhiBal, or equivalent, and take an evenly illuminated photo w/ both the WhiBal and the 18% gray card in the same image. Use the white balance tool in LR or PS to balance the image on the WhiBal and then check out the color numbers for the grey card. Then, you can decide for yourself if this level of detail matters to you. It's your phototography, do the experiment and decide for yourself.

By the way, after using the WhiBal for quite a long time on nearly every shoot, I now find that I only use it when I know the lighting is going to be tricky to balance. But, those decision are based on lots of shooting with and without the tool. And, sometimes, I use it and then ignore it because I like the effect of some other white balance setting better. Artistic license. Make your own decisions; be creative;enjoy. Good Luck,