Whibal card + m8 / m9

[Scheelings]

Does anyone have any experience using this card with an m8 / m9?

My Whibal card just arrived today. It's quite small - Must I move it reasonably close to the camera in order for it to take up what I presume is a shot such that it takes up a minimal amount of the frame? In which case it will be closer than the minimum 0.7m focus of the camera?

Is focus even important? - I can imagine in some low light shots, I'd need to open up the lens in order to get more light - but then the card won't be in focus.

 

[Pioneer]

Yes. I use mine frequently with my digital M9 and my film cameras. My card fits in my wallet so it is relatively small, like a credit card. So I bring it close to the camera so it fits into the metering area. No need to focus, the meter is only judging the light, not the subject itself. It is important to use it in the same light that will be on your subject, and it is important to prevent shadows. Sometimes I will need to tilt mine a bit to keep it evenly lit.

It works great. It is always grey and I don't have to tell myself to adjust my shutter speed or aperture because what I am metering should be in Zone 3 or in Zone 7. I always get terrific exposure if I use it. That is assuming I want to have normal focus in the first place. I may want a higher key image or a lower key image, in which case I would need to adjust the exposure.

There is also the speed thing, sometimes it just isn't feasible to pull out this little card when you are chasing your grandson around the backyard. But if you meter to start with you at least have a fighting chance of knowing where to start.

 

[ColSebastianMoran]

I use the WhiBal card with other cameras. It works well. Just take a shot including the card in the same light as your subject. Then, the white balance eyedropper in most photo programs does a nice job. It's especially helpful in non-standard lighting situations for getting close to a natural balance.

How close? In my experience, not critical. All you need is a big enough image of the card to hit with the eye dropper.

 

[Scheelings]

It works great. It is always grey and I don't have to tell myself to adjust my shutter speed or aperture because what I am metering should be in Zone 3 or in Zone 7. I always get terrific exposure if I use it. That is assuming I want to have normal focus in the first place. I may want a higher key image or a lower key image, in which case I would need to adjust the exposure.

I'm a bit confused about this. The camera requests you to take an actual photo when manually setting the white balance. Therefore don't you need accurate shutter speed for the given aperture in order to expose correctly?

I'm not sure what Zone 3 or 7 is either.

 

[Scheelings]

I use the WhiBal card with other cameras. It works well. Just take a shot including the card in the same light as your subject. Then, the white balance eyedropper in most photo programs does a nice job. It's especially helpful in non-standard lighting situations for getting close to a natural balance.

How close? In my experience, not critical. All you need is a big enough image of the card to hit with the eye dropper.

I'm not sure what the white balance eye dropper is. Perhaps that is a specific function of the camera you use. With the m8, when you select the function to use manual white balance, it simply asks you to take a photo - presumably because of this I assumed that focussing and especially exposure were important....also - how much of the card really needs to get 'captured' within the frame?

 

[Rob-F]

I'm not sure what Zone 3 or 7 is either.

Zone 3 is a luminance (brightness) value in the scene that is two stops darker than the midpoint value (zone 5) you have exposed for. Zone 7 is two stops brighter than the zone 5 value.

It's part of the zone system of exposure. Zone 1 is the darkest value (the least dense part of the negative) that still received any exposure at all. Zone 9 is the brightest area of a scene you can record that can still be differentiated from the next less bright area (the densest part of the negative that you can still tell from the previous, less dense step). Each zone differs from the last by one stop of exposure. Usually, there are 9 zones from white to black.

When you expose for a grey card, that is your zone 5 exposure--the midpoint.

That is for film. With digital, YMMV.

 

[2tigers]

I think the white balance dropper means the dropper tool in pp.

 

[jaapv]

Indeed it is, You use it to click on (the image of) the grey card to set whitebalance in raw conversion.
Having said that, it is certainly not a neccessity to have a perfect whitebalance in each shot. Often it will destroy the atmosphere and you will need to adjust

 

[Ronald M]

Card need not be in focus. I advise you to use it to set a custom white bal and save it as a profile in the M8 & 9 Use one profile for flash, one for tungsten, or your own photo lighting of choice.

Use the UV/IR filter on.

Alternatively include a shot with the card so you can use the WB tool in LR or PS.

WB can be equally set as well with the threshold function on INDIVIDUAL channels in photoshop levels. This is a lot of work, but affective. Do both shadows and highlights and set with the droppers, don`t guess moving sliders.

Whi Bal also sets the magenta green balance which you can do manually on every digital camera except Leica where you are limited to blue yellow only.

Once you get the WB correct, then use the Adobe profile editor to get the colors rendered properly instead of how someone in Solmes thought they should be. PS and LR can be set to have the profile set automatically based on camera serial number . Colors will be wonderful and both cameras will match.

The profile does not negate the need for correct WB.

 

[AncientCityPhoto]

Wen I use a whibal are, I usually just snap a shot of it in the same light as the subject. I stay on auto white balance on the camera and select the card in Lightroom later.

I I need to set white balance in camera, I use an expo disc. I much prefer these, and they also work to create a color cast profile if you happen to be using an m9 and super wide lenses.

In terms of actual colors and profiles, I actually like the colors I get out of the m8. If its color critical work, or it has to match another camera, I use a color chart. X-rites color checker passport works great for this. You take a shot of it. It has a color chart and white balance squares. In Lightroom, a profile can be generated automatically. It renders color according to the standard chart. Works great.

 

[Richard G]

WhiBal. White balance. I don't use it for exposure. I photograph the card, tilted and close, very close, with the M9 white balance set to manual. Neither focus nor exposure matter. The camera now has the white balance set to the existing light for all subsequent shots until the white balance is changed again.

 

[Scheelings]

Thanks very much guys. I think I get it. As I understand, I have 3 options (besides just the fixed in-camera settings):

1) don't use a WhiBal card but adjust for the set of photos in Lightroom using the individual colour bars and then apply that mask to all applicable photos

2) Take a normal photo of the WhiBal card and then use the eye dropper tool on the image taken in the photo-editing S/W to apply the white balance to all photos (really the only option for people that use film presumably)

3) Set the camera's white balance to manual and take an angled shot of the WhiBal card with balanced light (no shadows or reflections) in the conditions you intend to shoot resulting in no need for lighting adjustments in post processing.