Kaavie 3 in 1 Pocket Size White Balance & Gray Cards

canon400d

I would appreciate if someone can advise me on the use of these white balance and gray cards as I have never used them before. I believe these cards are the size of a credit card. I always set the white balance to Cloudy when taking landscapes etc and the remainder of the time it is set on AWB. I do use PS CS5.
Thanks
Bob

ziggy53

I moved this to the Technique forum since this seems to be a question about setting white balance and exposure with the assistance of devices like the Kaavie 3 in 1 Pocket Size White Balance & Gray Cards.

I am concerned about reading a statement like "I always set the white balance to Cloudy when taking landscapes etc and the remainder of the time it is set on AWB.", because there are many times when you need to use (or perhaps should be using) another setting for white balance.

Cloudy White Balance is a specific setting to use under cloudy outside conditions and between normal daylight hours. This setting attempts to give you desirable results by adjusting white balance to around 6,000K, which should produce fairly natural color under some cloudy conditions, warm colors under daylight conditions, and cool colors under sunrise/sunset conditions.

Ideally, I recommend shooting with AWB and then recording the image in RAW format (CR2 files if you still shoot Canon cameras.) This should give you a reasonable starting point, and then you would set the actual white balance (WB) and tint in post-production (assuming an Adobe ACR workflow). (If you use the Canon Digital Photo Professional (DPP) you can expect that the in-camera WB settings are more consistent to your desired WB settings, but not so with Adobe ACR, which often doesn't accurately honor manufacturer WB settings).

Tools like the Kaavie 3 in 1 Cards could be included in the scene to assist in both WB and exposure adjustment, but individual vision and photographic goals need to be considered. Any post-processing software with eyedropper sampling for WB, white-point and black-point could potentially use the target to help with those settings, but your artistic vision and intent will often override your final settings.

For instance, a landscape image designed for a picture postcard application might be rendered considerably different from a landscape used as a background for a product endorsement or portrait, where color accuracy might be a more driving quality.

Anyway, including the Kaavie targets in the scene at the start of each major different site or lighting situation should give you a good basis for exposure and color in post.

ziggy53

A very good use for the Kaavie 3 in 1 Pocket Size White Balance & Gray Cards might be for a custom WB situation, where you use the white card as your target in an unknown lighting situation.

You take a (slightly underexposed) picture of the white card with the card typically oriented towards the camera. Then you follow the manufacturer's instructions to use that image to set the custom WB for the camera. Using that custom WB should give you a very good starting point for post-processing in DPP (from RAW) or for JPG acquisitions in that lighting environment.

canon400d

ziggy53 wrote: »

A very good use for the Kaavie 3 in 1 Pocket Size White Balance & Gray Cards might be for a custom WB situation, where you use the white card as your target in an unknown lighting situation.

You take a (slightly underexposed) picture of the white card with the card typically oriented towards the camera. Then you follow the manufacturer's instructions to use that image to set the custom WB for the camera. Using that custom WB should give you a very good starting point for post-processing in DPP (from RAW) or for JPG acquisitions in that lighting environment.

Once again Ziggy I really appreciate your professional skills as I have in the past. From what you have explained I will have to look closer at this subject. However, thanks again for all your kind help.
Bob