There are so many solutions out there for achieving a great color white balance that makes you dizzy, deciding where to place your money. Do I get a simple grey card? Do those expo disc things work? Ask around to your peers about what they recommend, and you will likely get multiple answers from everyone that you know. And they will all be very opinionated.
Well, let me tell you what I use, and then show the tutorial video on how it works. I can tell you that out of everything I have tried, nothing is more versatile, and nothing has been as perfectly accurate every time like this. Plus, it is customizable to the way I like my images to look, and no one seems to offer that.
It’s called the Color Checker Passport from X-Rite
This system is easy to carry around and is the most accurate of everything I have tried. And I have tried a lot from cheap to expensive. This thing is perfect. Here is what I like about it.
- It includes a gray card if I want to go old school with a custom white balance, shoot the card, and then go into the settings to select a custom white balance that way.
- I can hold it in front of my subject and see the entire color spectrum so that I can get far more accurate results when I tweak it later in Lightroom. That can quickly be applied to every photo from the shoot instantly.
- It includes a set of white balance “boxes” that allow me to customize my look later. In Lightroom, I can sample through them using the white balance eyedropper tool and pick shades that are warmer or cooler to customize my look. That can quickly be applied to every photo from the shoot instantly.
- It includes plugin software for Lightroom that allows me to create a custom white balance profile so I can quickly recall that later with just a mouse click.
- I can use multiple cameras and get identical white balance results. Perfect for when I have other photographers helping me out. Like on a Wedding Walk.
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