Beginner White Balance - Grey Card

[wezza13]

Quick question :-

I was sitting out in my garden for a couple of hours yesterday morning, in my portable hide. I was photographing the birds. I had my camera on Raw (as always) with the white balance set to Auto. I use LR and PS for processing my images.

I got to thinking about the white balance as I normally change it with the eyedropper tool in LR. But as I was shooting birds, many images didn't have any grey for me to click on to set the WB.

So I wondered about getting a grey card for my WB, but would that be beneficial?

The reason I ask is that whilst sitting in my hide, the light kept changing. One minute it was sunny, next it was cloudy, then it was raining. Would you have to use the grey card for each of these weather conditions or would just the first pic do?

 

[Kodiak Qc]

…the light kept changing…

•
…and there you have it!

If you want to work rigorously with the grey card, you have
to place it where your subject is before shooting it… a most
unpractical idea.

The better idea (that I use —so this is very subjective) is to
leave it on Auto and tweak it in PP. It takes some experience
at the beginning but I'm sure you'll bite in it rather fast.

 

[russellsnr]

Hi, Color Checker Pastport is the way to go IMO not only for W/B but also the colour side of things especially with a subject like birds with colourful plumage.
You can make profiles to suit your camera.
Have a look at the Xrits website and youtube to see what it can do.
Russ

 

[ah5168]

The colour of the light changes as the sun moves through the sky and as it passes through clouds and pollutants in the air. By using a grey card you will get much more consistent subject colour.

To get the most consistent result you would idealy have a grey card captured in the corner of every frame which you could then use the colour picker on. As with everything there is a bit of technique to using a grey card as you can angle it to reflect just the light from the sky or the yellow light reflected from the surrounding foliage or a mixer of the direct and reflected light.