There are dozens of websites discussing white balance. There are so many products out there to help correct white balance, but which one to choose? After reading several reviews, I finally decided to test two of the most popular gray cards; WhiBal G6 Pocket Kit from www.rawworkflow.com and Premium Digital Grey Kard from www.digitalimageflow.com.
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WhiBal G6 Pocket Kit cost me $29.95 (no shipping cost to The Netherlands). The kit includes WhiBal Pocket Gray Card, quick-release lanyard, table stand, and lightweight carry case. The card is made of extruded cellular PVC; a sturdy foam-like material. It is slightly thinner than a CompactFlash card and about the size of a business card.
Premium Digital Grey Kard is $ 20.99. However, it cost me $22.98 with the shipping. The package includes set of three color balance cards (grey, white, black) and lanyard with detachable clip and safety release. The cards are made of PVC plastic, each the size of a credit card.
The table stand and carry case are a plus for WhiBal. I found the table stand of WhiBal very useful for ease of setup on tables or flat surfaces. It is not easy to set up Digital Grey Kard as WhiBal. The carry case is good enough to protect the WhiBal card from scratches.
The test image above was captured in RAW with Canon 5D Mark II using AWB under tungsten light mixed with a little daylight. The original RAW file can be downloaded from here.
I corrected the image using “White Balance Selector” (eyedropper) in Adobe Lightroom. Strangely, different areas of the cards produce different results. Therefore, I selected a random point from each card.
The first image was corrected using Digital Grey Kard. It is slightly warmer compared to the second one which was corrected using WhiBal. In both cases the cards provide a useful white balance reference. After this point it is up to the photographer to fine-tune the photographs.
Personally, I like warm tones. Digital Grey Kard gives pretty good results and is cheaper than WhiBal although the money is not the most important consideration for me. However, I found the lack of a table stand inconvenient. Although, it requires a few more clicks with WhiBal to get warmer tones, it is very easy to set up.
Edit (June 7, 2010): Here is the proof that I didn’t pay for the shipping. So please don’t debate the shipping cost.
Thanks for the excellent review of the DGK. I’m glad you liked the color balance you got with the Digital Grey Kard. Both cards work well, the Digital Grey Kard costs a LOT less. I don’t agree that there are no shipping charges to the NL for the WhiBal – please check their website. The actual cost is 3.00 USD, giving a total cost to a NL customer of 32.95 for the WhiBal vs. 22.98 for the Digital Grey Kard.
That means you save 40% if you buy the Digital Grey Kard. In these tough times, most photographers would like to save USD 10.00 if they can!
One other small note: You did not mention that the Digital Grey Kard is three cards, the WhiBal is only one card. We have many customers who insist on the three card set.
Henry – Your an idiot. We have to make a law where the biased can’t leave comments. It’d be like a Captcha except all they’d have to do is spell -H0N3STY- or -i.n.t.e.l.l.i.g.e.n.c.e.- so we wouldn’t have to deal. First off Digital Grey Kards DON’T costs a LOT less. Your dumb. Another reason your stupid is he never said there’s no shipping cost, he said no cost to The Netherlands, meaning ADDITIONAL COSTS. Shipping costs do change retard. And what are you talking about with the three cards? At the fact you didn’t even read the article before you exposed your ignorant mind is pretty sad. He wrote right in the article ””””The package includes set of THREE COLOR BALANCE CARDS.”””” THEN HE LISTS THE COLORS after that and shows them in multiple pictures! Your stupid and that’s exactly why you sell Digital Grey Kards. Your about as creative in life as you were in this page. YOU LACK.
Pop,
Speaking of intelligence, ‘your’ is possessive, ‘you’re’ is a contraction for ‘you are’. If you attack people, you’re advised to learn the difference since people will validly question your lack of intelligence. You also apparently cannot comprehend basic subject verb agreement i.e. ‘don’t costs less’.
In my search for the perfect white balance tool for shooting RAW, I’ve used WhiBal cards, grey cards, ExpoDiscs, X-Rite Color Checker, and every setting a camera has to offer. My results have shown that I get very similar white balance results from most products, with the exception of the WhiBal cards. WhiBal cards give me results that are too cool, and are not neutral, like you see in your example. I’ve tested this under controlled studio lighting, and the WhiBal results are always too cool.
Currently I use an ExpoDisc most of the time, as it allows me to shoot JPEG as well when needed. However, if I was purchasing a card to do post correction, I’d recommend the Digital Grey Kard over the WhiBal.
[...] WhiBal un Digital Grey Kard būtībā ir identiski produkti, tikai pēdējais ir lētāks (man sanāca nepilni 24 USD ar piegādi). Lietošanu var apgūt [...]
For those who say the WhiBal images are “too cool” or that you “like the warm tones”, I think you are missing the basic point of using a white balance card in the first place, which is to remove ALL light generated color cast from the image and obtain an image that is true to the color of the objects being photographed. You can only do this by using an absolutely neutral reference, which is what the WhiBal provides. Once you have the color cast removed, then you can tweak the image to be warmer if desired. The fact that the Digital Grey Kard produces warmer tones compared to the certified neutral WhiBal card indicates the Digital Grey Kard is not neutral (i.e., there is color cast still left in the image). Considering the cost of even mediocre camera equipment, the price difference between the two products is really irrelevant. I would much rather put my money on a known certified neutral reference than save a few pennies on something that gives me “warm tones” and therefore doesn’t perform its basic function as well.
How do you know it’s not the WHIBal card casting a slightly bluish tint? Assuming that the “cool” “warm” observations are valid may be incorrect. I’m not so sure the DGK is warming anything.
I agree with Ryzon’s sentiments. I was trying to understand why their is so much variation in the corrected immages that use grey cards as a WB reference. These WhiBal turtorials really helped me understand the difference between WhiBal and other grey cards. Sure they are put together by the maker of WhiBal but definately worth viewing. Measuring the nuetrality of the cards is the key point of difference, I think.
http://www.whibalhost.com/_Tutorials/WhiBal/01/index.html
EpiDisc is another WB tool. I found useful another article on it’s use in comparison to WhiBal and other grey card tools.
http://www.camerahobby.com/Digital_WhiteBalance.htm
Enjoyed your article Mincel, especially appreciate the image examples of the two WB tools you used.
Cheers,
Paul
I would have the Digital Grey Card. It works better for me, and a couple of my friends seem to like it also. Thanks for posting this Mincel.
R. Cristi
Author of Blonde Joke book!
If you enlarge the first picture, the Whibal card looks more noisy/textured than the Digital Grey Kard, which looks smooth and uniform. Is it an effect of the photograph, or is there a difference in surface texture? How does that affect grey reading in the image?
Hi Andy,
It is the texture of the WhiBal, it is a compressed foam-like material. Different areas of the card gives different results.
The correct way to use a WB card is to slightly blur the shot before taking it, thereby eliminating the difference that arises from varying texture of the card.
I’ve been using WhiBal card and I was happy with result. But now, reading this discussion, I will try Digital Grey Kard as well.
To my eyes the color was close with just the slightest hint of a blue tint. It was not enough to make a difference in my opinion and is well within the personal taste tolerance.
Next I corrected the same image using the DGK. After white balancing the RGB values read from the card ranged from 57.0 to to 59.8 with the biggest variance between RGB values being 0.2, the same tolerance as the WHIBAL card. This is the result.
Where is the review?
I have the WhiBal in the next size up and it works well.
MDM
Way back when I took the plunge into digital (bye ‘bye Leica) I purchased the WhiBal and I carry it with me in my sack but it gets used very rarely as I was never able to balance my colours to my satsifaction.
This morning I tried balancing some old photo’s of an oil painting that I took prior to my reparing many holes, cracks and fading. For this I used a Photoshop system from PhotoshopEssentials that sought out the BWG (this stands for Black, White and Gray – not British Wire Gauge.
The gray is the standard 50% as offered by Photoshop.
This I found more than acceptable and I repeated the whole operation using WhiBal (single large card and support) but after using the black & white from the card I stayed with my 50% gray – this was also very acceptable.
My question. What is the percentage gray of the WhiBal ? I seem to remember a percentage of 18% but I am not certain.
Can anyone help before I redo the operation finishing with the WhiBal gray?
Thanks for any help
Archie
All of you, including the person who wrote this are confusing exposure balance with white balance. They are two different things:
Exposure is about the intensity of light falling on a subject (and then reflected back to the camera). This is what a grey card is for as well as the white discs that you might put on your lens. Also note that just because you use these, it won’t give you perfect exposure. It gives you a reference point to make a decision on exposure. It’s not a magic bullet – you might have to adjust by a stop up or down depending on what you are shooting.
White Balance is about the color temperature. Light waves have differing temperatures and our brain adjusts this automatically to see white as white. However, camera’s aren’t quite as sophisticated as the human brain. Most of the time, putting it on AUTO white balance isn’t a good option. Not to mention, who knows what the target “white” is in your camera. It’s whatever the programmers decided it will be. So that’s where something like the WhiteBal comes in. It’s designed to reflect a precise white color (and black) back to the camera.
You should be using your grey card AND the white balance card together. They’re two difference devices for two different purposes.
In addition to providing a means for measuring exposure, a gray card provides a convenient reference for white balance, or color balance, allowing the camera to compensate for the illuminant color in a scene.
Okay, I do concede you can use a grey card for white balance. However, wouldn’t you need something like a Whitebal to figure out how much to compensate your grey card reading? Reflectance and neutrality vary enormously from brand to brand of grey cards. I found that out the hard way, unless things have changed in the past 15 years. I think that’s why I never considered them usable for white balance. If that’s still the case, my suggestion would be to buy both, take a shot with each and figure out the difference between the two and compensate your grey card using those values. Then you can resell the WhiBal on eBay!
Things have changed a lot in the past 15 years. The products that I compared are two of the most popular digital grey cards and used for correcting while balance.