Is the Grey card the only card you use to set your white balance? Then when and How do you use the black and the white card?

In digital photography, generally you use the Gray card for setting the White Balance, either using the custom white balance settings in the camera, or if saving images to a raw file format (not JPG), later in your photo editing software. I frequently use the Gray card to set my white balance at each new location, and only occasionally use the white and black cards to tweak the exposure.After setting the White Balance using the Grey card, the Black and White cards can be used to maximize the dynamic range of the exposure. This is more important when shooting in manual mode but can help in identifying when auto-exposure is not giving you the best results.When adjusting the image exposure, either in full manual or more frequently just using the exposure compensation setting, I put all three cards into the scene and shoot them all together fairly close-up. FYI – The cards don’t need to be in focus to work so keep the focus on the subject. Then I tweak the camera exposure so that the histogram shows the spike corresponding to the Grey near the middle, but more importantly the spike for the White card appears near, but not falling off, the right edge of the histogram. This is assuming you want to capture all the highlights in your image, like the details in clouds or a white wedding dress. If the dark shadows are more important, like when shooting in an alley, then make sure the small spike on the left side of the histogram corresponding to the light bouncing off the black card is also shown.I suggest setting your exposure and white balance when shooting and make minor tweaks in software later as needed. When saving to a raw file type, you have a greater ability to make exposure and color adjustments after the photo shoot and still get excellent results. In the case of shooting raw files, capturing an image with all three cards permits you to adjust the white balance and exposure limits later for that image using the cards in the image as reference. You can even carry over those adjustments to other photos from that same photo shoot, but only if the lighting does not change AND the camera settings do not change.

When I photograph the grey card for a custom white balance my photos turn out yellow. What am I doing wrong?

I had the same issue. The grey card is not pure grey (and the white card is DEFINITELY not pure white). It makes all my images have a yellow/green tint when I try to balance with this set of cards.

The description says the cards are for film and dslr cameras. is there any reason why these would not also work for mirrorless cameras too?

The sellers never updated their description. Works fine with a mirrorless camera also.

I bought these & larger cards by Movo, & the 2 gray cards are totally different colors. Is one not really 18% gray?

The percentage of gray doesn’t really matter. What matters is the ratio of component colors. That is, it needs to be tint free.

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Reviews

C**R

This kinda blew my expectations. I was expecting cheap paper cards (for the price) turned out to be 3 solid acrylic cards. They are about the size of business cards which I can see be too small for some photogs/videogs but their perfect for someone who is not in a studio (like I am). Their worth far exceed their cost in my opinion.

4.06.2023

焼**飯

びみょーに、壁がクリーム色の部屋で撮影した動画が妙な色になって。いじっても余計におかしくなり。どうしたらいいのかと調べていたら反射率18％のグレーを撮影してあとでホワイトバランスを調整するというのを何処かのサイトで見かけて。試しに買ってみたところ、無いよりあった方が良いという色に。すぐなくすので、グレーだけ5枚入りみたいなのがあれば良い。

7.04.2025

J**H

Tarjetas de muy buena calidad, teniendo un lado con brillo y el otro mate-rugoso, perfecto para hacer balances de blancos en las camaras, y asi tener las tomas de video perfectas, tambien ayuda bastante en postproducción...

26.09.2017

Z**H

Just about exactly as you would expect. Easy to use, easy to carry (wallet, lanyard, other), and it seems durable enough. I think it was worth it to have, especially convenient for wedding days.

19.08.2025

L**O

Mi son fatto prendere la mano dal prezzo economico per il prodotto pensando al solito gadget fotografico; il formato carta di credito aiuta ad averlo dietro anche quando non penseresti ti possa servire, già è in tasca, usarlo è più facile. Le tre schede hanno un lato lucido ed uno opaco, il laccio di seta con moschettoncino e laccetto uso telefono è forse troppo lungo provvisto di aggancio/sgancio rapido in plastica ma forse la lunghezza è voluta per ricordarne l'uso. Un gadget, sì, ma utile in determinate occasioni particolari nelle quali si vuol essere sicuri della lettura esposimetrica.

24.08.2017

ASIN	B01DPV5PUA
Best Sellers Rank	#11,134 in Electronics ( See Top 100 in Electronics ) #10 in Photographic Calibration Charts & Grey Cards
Item model number	GreyCard-S
Manufacturer	Anwenk
Product Dimensions	8.5 x 5.5 x 0.3 cm; 9.07 g

Anwenk Grey Card White Balance Card 18% Exposure Photography Card Custom Calibration Camera Checker Video, DSLR and Film

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