bravozulu wrote:Which method should I play with:a) WB settings on the camera (using a white or 18% grey card)b) Adjustments of WB or Gray in Aperturec) Using the 'eyedropper' tool in Aperture Adjustments lift & stamp from a pure white object in the frame.Gosh, after 45 years of shooting, I honestly can't claim that I know what constituteswhite.I occasionally photograph paintings and drawings.If the artwork is small enough, use a good scanner!Otherwise, a gray card is great.

RemcoDo wrote:i understand your point showing that grey card could decide what it thinks is correct vs what the shot actualy looked like. so now that i wasted money on a grey card because so many articles claim using a grey card or expodisc is a must for true color .......now confusedA gray card makes it possible to capture the true colors. (almost, because if you are in a situation with a lot of different colored lightsources you still have a color problem).A gray card is still a must have tool in situations where your camera is easily confused like sunny day shadow areas, indesent light etc. (like shooting a basketball game and every photo has a blue cast over it.)There are also situations where you probably are happy with the discolored result. You invite people to come over to your house to have dinner. You did everyting to create that special atmosphere. Because you want to capture (a bit of) the atmosphere as well, you do not mind a little bit of orange skintone.You can do a little experiment. Take a piece of true white paper. In whatever environment you are, when you look at the paper you see a white paper. The paper is changing color but your brain is telling you that the paper is white. Your camera does not have a brain and produces a photo with the colors it sees. One time your paper is orange next time blue etc. This is why you need WB and sometimes need a gray card.And......if you think white balance is important, RAW shooting is a must.i see your point and agree , the camera does not have a brain and we must feed input and data to  get what we want from it.

rska2013 wrote:Di understand your point showing that grey card could decide what it thinks is correct vs what the shot actualy looked like. so now that i wasted money on a grey card because so many articles claim using a grey card or expodisc is a must for true color .......now confusedThat’s OK to feel confused.The gray card is a standard reference — it ought to be objectively neutral.As someone else mentioned, you don’t always want to have a neutral white balance, but very often, even much of the time, you probably will want a neutral balance.White balance has two axes which correspond closely to the eye’s response to color. The primary axis is between an orangish yellow and a sky blue color — like the color of the sunset versus the blue sky — and this is likely not a coincidence. The other axis is beteen an emerald green color and a rosy magenta.As you might expect if, you think about it, there is a lot of latitude in the yellow/blue setting (also known as color temperature), but, even a slight greenish or magenta tint will tend to look sickly. So using a white balance card for the purpose of removing tint is quite valuable, even if you will retain a non-neutral color temperature.Be aware that the eye does a white balance too, and the hue that you perceive will most likely not be as strong as the hue that the camera captures, if, for example, you keep your camera set to a fixed Daylight white balance while shooting at sunset or in the shade.Nowadays we have a lot of artificial light sources — like fluorescent and other gas-discharge lamps and LEDs —  that don’t provide a good, continuous light spectrum as does sunlight or incandescent lighting. In these cases, using a white balance card is extremely important to get even halfway good color. A custom camera profile along with a lot of manual retouching could be needed for the best work.Even at sunset you will probably want something close to a neutral white balance — but not a white balance of the light from the setting sun, nor the white balance of the blue sky opposite, but rather a compromise between the two, which very often is close to the camera’s fixed Daylight white balance setting. This will give you the greatest range of color as well as good balance between blue and yellow.With experience you may be able to get away without using a card, simply because you have taken lots of photos under similar conditions, or you can measure the colors in the scene and pick a good final value in post processing. However, be aware that for any given model of camera, the color temperature and tint settings will probably not match other camera modes.