Brian Hartnell Loc: Marinette WI

Most cameras can adjust white balance fairly well but this tip will set your white balance under existing challenging lighting conditions of any kind allowing you to shoot at any subject under that lighting and maintain the same color for each shot. If your Auto White Balance isn't quite doing the job, consider this. Cameras adjust white balance every time you point the camera & trip the shutter. This tip will lock that color value so no subject will change the color value as your shooting. As a pro I carried the Expo Disk to allow me to set a custom white balance for all the different lighting conditions I shot under. I wanted each shot to maintain color balance. This type of pro device cost me $69 but not everyone wants to spend money. What also works is the plastic lid off of a butter tin. By shooting thru the lid or the expo disk, you create an image of 18% neutral gray which is what the camera feels is ideal color. This image will have a neutral gray filter pack set. Shooting at a scene doesn't always create that ideal color so using this technique allows us to lock the color value under our current lighting by using Custom White Balance. You will have to read your manual to find the steps to select this feature. It will ask you for an image on your card that represents a custom balance, choose that 18% image you shot thru the lid. At that point you can move around and shoot at anything under that lighting and come up with consistent color in all your images. What also works is a clean white tee shirt, white wall, white cardboard, they all produce the same 18% neutral gray image so don't get hung up on just using one technique. I just mentioned the butter lid because it is easy to stick in your bag for when you need to use it in a challenging lighting situation. PS that larger lid will fit virtually any glass you put on your camera. One size fits all.

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Shoot thru the Butter tin lid

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DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

OK, I will state at the beginning that I have never tried an expodisk. And I buy my butter in boxes, so I don't have any butter tin lids handy.

But I have had concerns about just what it's doing. It appears to me that it consists of a material that diffuses the light coming through it and destroys the image so all you have is a uniform field. Just how does this ensure that you can get the proper white balance?

Suppose I have an ordinary subject in front of me. It is in a room without windows. The scene is lit by a white light. The result of using the expodisk will be something that is some sort of average of all the colors reflected by the subject. For an ordinary subject, that might produce some sort of white balance.

Now suppose I have the same subject in the same room, but I switch to a red light lighting the subject. All I will get is the average defined by the elements of the subject that reflect red light. No white balance at all. Just red balance(?)

Now suppose I have the same subject in the same room and I use both the white light and the red light. Wouldn't I get a white balance from the expodiisk that is biased toward the red?

I have always assumed that you need something white in the field of view to properly define white balance. And you need a full spectrum light source, although some spectral structure could be present as long as all colors are available in the lighting.

I welcome input from people with experience in using this tool/gadget.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Most cameras, when shooting RAW, ignore WB settings. Mine, at least, do take custom WB settings into consideration. Additionally, many don't consider the environmental hue when processing their photographs. Additionally, under very specific circumstances, Lens Color Compensation needs to be taken into account.

I've borrowed one of these Expo disks and was glad I didn't purchase one. I take care of color issues during processing.
--Bob

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

Nikon RAW files show up in ACR displaying WB "as shot", showing the effect of the custom WB. I always set a custom WB from a white WB target when it is convenient, then I don't have to worry about it in post.

Brian Hartnell Loc: Marinette WI

I used the Expo Disk with great success in all of my years of studio portrait, wedding and commercial shots using Raw and Jpeg to maintain color balance under unusual lighting conditions with all of my many Canon cameras. This was my best use for the lid or using any white surface to create that 18% neutral filter pack under that lighting condition. It is best used when the normal AWB or any of the other selectable filter packs for your camera don't work quite right for the lighting. I also did post processing but this one item worked well for my work flow and minimized color imbalance. I taught the using of a butter lid to students because they weren't always wanting to buy more equipment.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

So as I understand it, you take a shot through the expodisk. You tell your camera that's white. Your camera then adjusts the white balance to make that shot white and uses the same parameters to apply to the succeeding shots.

My concern there is: what if the scene contains a lot of some color? The expodisk image is then biased toward that color, so the white balance will be off a bit. It seems to me that the use of the expodisk requires a scene that is already balanced in color, and you're only correcting for the lighting.

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

These are nice, but I've never met a Professional Photographer who uses them.

All the working 'Togs I know use a X-Rite Color Checker Passport for later correction in Lightroom

https://xritephoto.com/colorchecker-passport-photo2

All you need is the dropper tool.

Ysarex Loc: St. Louis

When using something like the expodisk point the camera at the light source to set a custom WB. The goal is to measure the color of the light source. Your concern is valid. I have a pink tiled bathroom (came with the house). The walls are pink and the floor is pink. If I wanted a good WB in that room I would point the expodisk at the light source and not the pink wall.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

I wonder how that would have worked here. I was contracted to shoot some wedding dresses on live models. The person who owned the studio which made the dresses had a favorite color for their walls. Every wall looked like this.

The lesson I learned from this exercise was meet the person and see the location of the session. There was a lot of processing work to do on each one of the photos. Thankfully, there were only a handful of dresses to photograph.
--Bob

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GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

I point mine at the light source, as if I’m taking an incident light reading.
While I can tweak the raw files all I want in Photoshop, at some events, I’m called upon to provide a slide show as the event is going on and updating it periodically. In those cases, I have zero time for post processing. I use the jpegs right out of the camera. The color is always better than using auto white balance..In baseball terms, it’s usually past third base.

I also have the XRite color checker, for when I need the color to be correct. That’s a home run, but involves some post processing. For a slide show at an event, it’s overkill.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

OK. That explains it. I didn't see that in the OP description.

bleirer

Same with Canon.

MW

Of course the color of the lighting can be a major element of the composition. Low angle early morning or late afternoon light. Overhead street lights at night are another example

Xpatch Loc: New York, Antigua, GT.

I shoot with a Fuji and I have used the cloudy,preset, a 18 percent grey WB card, the palm of my hand (old school) and kelvin adjustment through live with to set WB. Also Suto There is also a light meter on my phony. Most day cloudy works, or 5500k. I like shooting WB in manual through live view. As i shot EAW and use Cspture one I am sort of indifferent to WB as is is all changeable in PP presets ,and I shoot through OVF, so I see it. And can compare to EVF with a flick I care more about tonal range and not loosing high and low light. I’d still like to be able to bracket or burst shoot wb.

Blair Shaw Jr Loc: Dunnellon,Florida

precisely...thanx man.