sbohne

I never shot the cards out of focus. Whatever would that achieve??

SteveR Loc: Michigan

I've used a folded white piece of typing paper and it worked fine. I was shooting in a barbershop with fluorescent light and a window with plenty of sunlight shining in.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

If your goal is correct color, then neither will do.

I use an Xrite ColorChecker Passport when it is important to have completely neutral color.

This video explains why it is a solution that is better than the rest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDtebpvATzc

catchlight.. Loc: Wisconsin USA- Halden Norway

Pro-tip: Slightly de-focusing your lens can improve the results of your sample spot later on in the process.
Here is a tutorial to help understand why.

https://medium.com/photography-secrets/grey-cards-for-white-balance-11aba41fd60a

sbohne

Balderdash. Makes no difference and no sense. Also, blowing out the white card is not advisable: any whites in your image will have no data in them. Other than that, he describes the process I use.

catchlight.. Loc: Wisconsin USA- Halden Norway

Sounds like you are pretty close minded to what could be good information ...

The thing you want to influence is color. Reducing focus will even out the cards collected color information much like a blur filter.

Blowing out a white card would require over exposure.

Hopefully mentioning this tip will be helpful to you and others when you run across the idea again in the future.

https://medium.com/photography-secrets/grey-cards-for-white-balance-11aba41fd60a

sbohne

Except I've already tried it real world...zero difference. I'm not close-minded: if I've tried it and it makes no difference, why worry. When you do a white balance on your camera, it does that, exactly for the reason you mention. It is because the camera manufacturers knew that if users were white balancing "in the wild" exposures could be affected by the things the author mentions. IF you are using a good gray card, it just is not necessary. It's not that it is wrong to do, it simply does not improve the reading. By all means, if this gives you a security blanket and makes you feel warm and fuzzy, do it. It is just not necessary or required.

And the author's method of adjusting exposing until he gets an overexposure warning on his whites is just incorrect. That means there will be no data in your whites. The brightest area of your image should not exceed a reading of 245. If it does, that means there is no data there...it is just bald blank white. If it works for him, great. But I was always taught that was not proper. Digital is like transparency film. Overexposure is fatal.

1DProphet

We have multiple shooters with various Canon gear used for 35mm stills, Passports are the white balance tool of choice for us, consistency is the issue for us, and they deliver that, I would tell you we do employ color meters for corporate environmental portraiture and such when ambient and flash are mixed.