[quote user="krop"]what exactly is a grey card for? What do you do with it? Does this make a big difference?[/quote] It's used so you've got a known quantity to balance all your color around. A few months ago I posted a detailed gray card HOWTO. :-) The big difference is knowing your...

I am new to photography and loving every minute of it. However, I have encountered a problem I just can't seem to figure out. I am a newbie, so bear with me! How do you meter? I have a Nikon D50 and a gray card. I was told to put the camera in the program mode, press the shutter release halfway upon...

jjhat1: As usual you can pay no attention to the guy at the store... he's clueless. The guy at the store might not be as clueless as you think. He stands to make quite a bit more money if he can convince folks to buy an expodisc instead of a $2.00 gray card. One of my college jobs was a pawnbroker...

eth: Shoot in RAW mode. Why shoot a gray card for every lighting situation? So the color is correct straight out of the camera. I like to show my clients the raw images, directly after shooting, and I want the color to be perfect. This is the reason why cameras have a custom white balance setting, so...

When capturing the custom white balance I don't think it matters that the card is in focus. My camera actually racks the lens so it's as out of focus as possible. (making for a more uniform gray tone) I've seen quite a few gray cards in my day and I have yet to encounter one that is not certified...

plum: Obscura...or anyone who can help.... I just purchased the digital gray card you recommended and hopefully will get it next week. I have not used one.. so like others.. not sure the exact steps.. after I take a picture of the gray card, then what? There are two schools of thought on using gray cards...

trwheels: Be careful using grey cards for color balance unless they were specifically designed for it. Grey cards were initally designed for exposure use and may not be neutral for white balance. I shot thousands of images using a ten year old zone system gray card that yielded fantastic results. It...

I use custom white balance all the time no matter what the lighting conditions. I also shoot a " reference shot " with the gray card in frame during every photo shoot. The purpose of the reference shot is to check that my custom white balance is correct and make slight corrections if needed...

Check your camera's manual to see how much of the gray card should be in frame when setting your custom white balance. When capturing your "control image" the scene should be composed as normal with the addition of a gray card right where your subject is. If I'm shooting a portrait...

To have the finest control over what is going on, you shot a custom white balance off the gray card before the exposure with your gray card in the scene. (and you are using this custom white balance for your subsequent exposures) If possible, you should be checking and correcting your color on RAW images...