White Balance Lens
grey cards vs white balance lens caps?
is white balancing using a white balance lens cap, is as good as doing it using a grey card? there are very cheap white balance lens caps in ebay and are they good?
That is a good question, and I can't say that I have ever seen any direct comparison tests between these methods, so I will just offer some opinion and experience.
A true white balance "grey card" is, or should be, a precise piece of gear. It is not just any greyish colored piece of plastic or cloth.
Here is the WhiBal card, which I use, and know of other photographers who also use this for excellent results.
http://www.rawworkflow.com/whibal/
You simply place this in the scene or have your model hold it for an initial shot, then In RAW processing, you target the card for correct wb, then apply that to other photos taken in the same light. Really an easy process during and after the shoot.
With a lens cap, if I am not mistaken, you have to get an ambient light reading to make your white balance determination. In other words, you have to use it somewhat like an ambient light meter. You mount the cap on your lens, then you need to move to the location of your subject / scene and point the camera back to the light source. This allows the lens cap to read the light correctly as it falls onto the scene. You then have to go through the in camera procedure of creating and selecting a custom white balance, which to me, at least with Canon DSLRs, is a royal pain in the butt and very time consuming and interferes with any kind of flow in a photo shoot.
Then there is the question of just how accurate is a very cheap lens cap undoubtedly made in China going to be as far as giving a TRUE neutral grey reading? I frankly doubt it will even be close to the precision of the WhiBal card.
So to me using a precise card and setting your correct wb later in RAW processing is just SO much easier and better than trying to use the lens cap procedure and setting a custom wb over and over again in the camera, and with a device that is suspect at best as to accuracy.
steve
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JYC 77mm White Balance Lens Filter Cap for Digital Cameras from Dinodirect.com
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Tags: balance, white balance lens cap b&h, photography
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