Reddit reviews Lightdow 12 x 12 Inch (30 x 30 cm) White Balance 18% Gray Reference Reflector Grey Card with Carry Bag [Folded Version]

> I guess what I think looks good don't really look good. lol.

welcome to the world of grading lol. This perfectly describes the past like four years i've spent trying to learn to grade.

As for f1.8, yea i did the same thing for the longest time, and just wound up with tons of soft footage. I also like the shallow DOF, but unless there is a reason, you shouldn't use it. Especially on a wide lens, for some reason people shoot like 28mm wide open. There's like no reason if you have plenty of light. You're not going to be able to get shallow DOF on a 28mm unless you're shooting full frame and your subject is like 4 feet away. Why even try? Just save the shallow DOF shots for when your camera is on a tripod, you have a long lens, and you know that your subject isn't moving.

White balance is an art of it's own. AWB can be good but the major danger of that, is that you're dealing with situations of mixed lighting that might change in mid shot. I always use manual WB so i know exactly what my camera is seeing as white. When you have mixed lighting and are using AWB, the camera has to "guess" what you want to be white. It will either take an average of both, or if one is overpowering the other, it will just balance more to one. If your bride is being lit by windowlight and then moves to be lit by some warm lamp,, you can see the issue here. Also, keep in mind that you have a bright white source in front of you almost the entire day: the dress. As long as it isn't ivory, you can manually balance to the dress. I keep a $7 white popup card in my pocket that i can use at any time. https://www.amazon.com/Lightdow-Balance-Reference-Reflector-version/dp/B00HT9MA1W/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1506634185&sr=8-3&keywords=gray+card

It generally ends up being daytime balance for everything outside (manually balanced to a grey/white card), and then the entire reception i use 3200K. ***KEEP IN MIND that 3200 may not work for everyone, because for the entire reception i am blasting everything with my 3200k lights, so i KNOW that the light hitting them is perfect white. You will have to modify this if you're not. One thing to keep in mind is that typical receptions have window light, and since they're in the evening, the light coming in might go from like 6000k down to like 4000k in a matter of hours. This is why i balance to 3200k, so i'm not chasing the color of the window light. I'm okay with the window light being a little blue, and during sunset, it tends to match the 2800k or 3000k practicals better. Either way, lights are essential for receptions. Even a couple of $50 LED panels will make a ton of diference.

Another thing that helps a TON is using window light and shutting off warmer indoor lights. for things like bridal prep, i go ahead and shut off all the indoor orange lights and just use window light so i KNOW for a fact that the only light that's hitting them is daylight and it stays the same temp.

Ideally, you want to manually white balance each lighting change/scene with a white card. Whenever something looks off or the location changes, i WB again. It's a pain, but you honestly don't have to do it as often as it sounds. The entire ceremony gets its own WB. bridal prep gets its own WB

No, this has been strongly refuted with a paper cited 277 times so far.

One can put a green leaf on an 18% gray calibration card used in photography, take the pic, and analyze the pic in Photoshop/Gimp and see that most green light in a leaf is absorbed.

The above is a simple test that anyone can do.

Get a grey card and learn to use it during your shoots: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HT9MA1W/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_9W5XAbJF4KD4F

This will keep your white balance where it should be so you don’t start off your editing already trying to recover the photo back to a neutral.

You need to trust your brain in oddball lighting conditions. If there are big spikes of light (streetlights in a night scene, say) you need to meter the area you want to have properly exposed.

Spot and center-weighted meters are just telling you what amount of exposure will make an 18% gray card properly exposed. So you can stick a gray card in the scene where you want proper exposure, move in close enough to fill the metering area with the card, and take a reading. Or meter on someone's face and step back (but for metering from a face, you might want a half stop to a stop more exposure).

Averaging meters and matrix-style meters take all the scene into account (but are likely found on more modern, plastic AF-era bodies).

I'd guess cinestill has pretty good exposure range, so within a stop or so you should be good (cinestill experts might pipe in though).

https://smile.amazon.com/Lightdow-Balance-Reference-Reflector-version/dp/B00HT9MA1W/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=gray+card&qid=1566784109&s=gateway&sr=8-3

This lil guy here. I shoot a frame with that in it and then use that color sample for white balance for the rest of the shots. Using natural light will make it a little more difficult because the light will change.

I don't know if there is custom white balance available on phone apps, but getting one of these gray cards in combination with the custom white balance has made my photos so much better. I only have to adjust fill light and highlights and shadows.

Sample image

Here you go!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00HT9MA1W/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1520049053&sr=8-4&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=white+balance+disc&dpPl=1&dpID=41yOhfVswsL&ref=plSrch

Edit: I use the gray side when shooting V-Log video so I can know the exposure value when using false color on my Atomos recorder.

I always carry one of these with me in my bag. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HT9MA1W/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Although I usually use the white side to good effect, it does have the grey side as well.

Yeah I just use this one from Amazon. It's only $7.

https://www.amazon.com/Lightdow-Balance-Reference-Reflector-version/dp/B00HT9MA1W/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1520546885&sr=8-3&keywords=grey+card