Photographing Artwork..grey Card Or White Card...or No Card?

its a good idea to shoot with one off camera so you can balance your whites. or there will be a tint each time you do it depending on the light source. a card isn't that expensive. and you may be able to get something in the paint chip isle.

---Mike Savad

White paper/card works fine. White reflects all colors equally and is a good target for custom WB setup.

White is fine,as Murray says. Kodak makes a "Gray" card that is a universal color,without any color to it. But any gray that you find, that is neutral will work. I always use a gray card, but I always have to remember to remove the gray card too! If your iamge has a pure white or gray, no card is needed!

Rich

Thanks a lot guys, grey card it is!

Grey Card do not help with calibration your camera.
It is helpful to bring colors(with software,in postprocessing) if you put grey card close to the object you want to photograph,especially indoor,like painting,people...
In case of outdoor the best to use camera WB ( white balance) in clear day - sunny,in really cloudy day - cloudy,when sun is gone - shade...

If you buy a grey card, use the grey side for photography and the white side for video. If you use white paper or carton, you canīt be sure that it is really pure white. Many papers use color brightener, which brings the paper to the blue side of the spectrum. Thatīs the theory, but itīs up to you how accurate you want it to be.

A very good site for beginners: http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/

Its not just any grey - its called 18% gray. You can get a little pack of white, black and grey cards off of Amazon for under $10. You just need a little bit to put the eyedropper tool on.

Maxwell,

You can get "free" gray cards from Home Depot,Lowe's,etc.



The middle space is the actual Kodak 18% gray card,which is 8x10",but if you go to a paint store,find a neutral gray,a taupe gray,no color caste and use that. Then after you've copied it and remembered to shoot it WITHOUT the gray card,go into Photoshop or something like that and use the eye dropper tool, and that will correct the color caste from the blue sky,if shot outdoors that shows up in any shadow situation,

Rich

IF u are using a digital camera, just look at the image after you shoot it and make adjustments accordingly.