Getting the correct white balance

Sometimes the auto white balance on even the best digital cameras doesn’t get it quite right. For times like these we need a gray card. You may be wondering why we need a gray card to set the white balance. All gray cards are balanced to 18% gray which is neutral and doesn’t have any color. Pure white on the other hand is always white no matter what your white balance is set to. That is why we need a gray card. 

Gray cards come in all shapes and sizes from various manufacturers. I personally use whibal gray cards. They make a gray card especially for key chains so it is always with you and doesn’t take up any extra space in your bag. The great thing is that you can even use these gray cards when taking a photo with your cell phone.

To use a gray card when shooting raw you need only include it in one of your photos. Like in this example here.

As you can see the White Balance is completely off in this photo even if we included a gray card in the frame.

Now when you start processing your photos you need only open this file and take a sample from the gray card to get the correct white balance as shown here.

You should however be careful to get the same exposure on both photos otherwise your white balance will differ between the photos. The other great thing about these gray cards is that you can set your exposure with them. Just set your camera to spot metering and point it at the gray area to give you the correct exposure.

Happy Shooting!