Tools to customize white balance

[victor_ng2]

<p>Hi,<br>

I’ve been using ExpoDisc filter to customize the white balance on my camera. I love it, it’s very accurate. All my lenses are 77mm size and so I bought the 77mm ExpoDisc size. Until last week, I just bought a Canon 400mm prime lens (it’s on the way) which has humongous front. So here is my question: once I have this lens, how/what do I use to customize the white balance? Please note that after buying this new lens, my money is very low now, and in fact, I hate to have another thing in my camera bag, which is very heavy now already! :-)<br>

Thanks.</p>

[bernard_lazareff]

<p>Just cut out a disk of black cardboard with a <=77mm hole to fit your ExpoDisk and hold the whole thing in front of your big lens</p>

[patricklavoie]

<p>use a Melita coffee paper filter, cover your lens and do what you do with your Expodisk normally (no need to go into *difficult* paper cutting ; ) ... same result.<br /> Now, you just discover that you pay your Expodisk just 100$ too much ; )</p>

<p>___</p>

<p>Method 2 will be to use a gray card on set, forget the custom white balance, and simply adjust it later in post with Lightroom / ACR / Aperture... work if you shoot raw, well work also with JPEG, but wrong color balance is glued to your shot if you shoot JPEG so any color correction you do after in post are only apply over the problem vs shoothing in raw where you can decide later whats best for your file and adjust it directly inside your data.</p>

<p> </p>

[robert_k1]

<p>In an older thread, I commented:</p>

<blockquote>

<p>I bought a couple of EXPODISCs for my film camera ages ago, but never used them much. When they were advertised for digital wb, their prices tripled. I called the manufacturer and was told that they were one and the same. (But DIGITAL anything costs more!) I sold mine as digital EXPODISCs and made a profit.<br>

<br />Here is a comparison of a few alternatives:<br>

<br /><a href="http://www.ppmag.com/web-exclusives/2008/11/product-comparison-white-balan-1.html#more" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.ppmag.com/web-exclusives/2008/11/product-comparison-white-balan-1.html#more</a></p>

<p>Each situation will need to be wb customized differently, and any of the above will only get you close. If you can do that, and if they turn out close enough, you are done. Otherwise, you will need to tweak some more in RAW conversion. I would go for the $.01 one.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>http://www.photo.net/nikon-camera-forum/00UB17</p>