Use a grey card for correct exposure

[@DanCantero]

In today's video, I'm going to show you how to use the grey card to nail the perfect exposure every single time. Most people associate a great card for a method to control and correct your white balance. What most people don't know, is that you can use an 18% grey card to calibrate your camera to get the correct exposure every single time. And 18% grey card is an affordable way to make sure that you get the correct exposure on your photographs every time by using the grey card as a calibration tool to tell your camera the correct settings for your photo. If you have any questions about how to use your Greg card to calibrate your camera to get a perfect exposure every single time, leave them in the comment section below. If you like this video about how to use your grey card to calibrate the exposure of your photographs, make sure that you click the like button and subscribe to the channel for more great content like this. If you're interested in purchasing a grey card like the one that I show you in this video you will find the link below. The grey card I use amzn.to/3PSA6MW BONUS DOWNLOAD ADOBE LIGHTROOM KEYBOARD SHORTCUT GUIDE: --- bit.ly/3eK6QVL FREE Preset for you to download: --- www.dancantero.com.au/presets Come say hi on social Websites ministryofphoto.com www.dancantero.com.au Facebook facebook.com/DanCantero/ Twitter twitter.com/DanCantero Instagram instagram.com/dancanterophotography My favourite bit of kit Canon EOS 5D MK IV amzn.to/3ddGcmh Canon 1DX MK II amzn.to/2Ci0P3Y Fav lens of all time!!! Canon 35 f14. amzn.to/2V3TnQu Aputure 120D amzn.to/3fEIcWq Mavic Air amzn.to/30Zv5Lf

[@daisychainsmusicpublishing4789]

thanks that was excellent

[@DanCantero]

You are welcome!

[@MrWolf__]

Very helpful.. Thank you..

[@DanCantero]

Glad it was helpful!

[@rickymundy8663]

Great tutorial! Never thought about using gray card for proper exposure. I can see how that can help. In your demonstration your first pic of the speaker has 125 of sec and shooting the gray card it changed to 1/5 th sec. I believe the gray card was blocking the light thru the window causing the slight to be kinda blown out. Just looked like the gray card was very close to the camera and could be an optical elusion. Never less it was very good example how to nail both exposure and WB. Thank you for sharing.

[@DanCantero]

I think you're right. Good catch! :-)

[@sgtz113ang]

clear and quite helpful !

[@DanCantero]

Thanks Mark. Glad you found it useful.

[@plumberski8854]

Interesting. Never thought of doing that. My way is to change the light metering to focus on the speaker and not eg matrix. Will do a test later using your method and the light metering change and see the differences.

[@DanCantero]

The way you are doing it is a really good way to do it also. Specially if it's a really contrasty scene. For challenging situations such as a speaker in a dark environment I would also use spot metering and for a more evenly lit scene I would use the grey card method. I'm glad you found the video interesting. Let me know how you go in your tests. Dan

[@edwardgreven7819]

Hi, first of all, thanks for this super video!! My question, do I need to reset after the light changes or also my angle? For Example, freehand person shoot outside. Thanks!

[@DanCantero]

Hey Edward! Glad you found it useful. You need to change it any time the light changes because as the light changes the temperature will be different. You don't need to do it when you change angles. You should also change it if you move to a different location because sometimes, you will get reflected colors from things like concrete floors, grass, etc. Hope that helps.

[@geoffmartinvideocraft5076]

Brilliant 👍

[@DanCantero]

Thanks!

[@jaxchambers7652]

Thank u

[@DanCantero]

You're welcome. :-)

[@rogerwalton8160]

Thanks for your really useful videos. When you did LR tethering a while back you mentioned that you'd be doing a written guide for this. Is this available or have you abandoned the idea?

[@DanCantero]

Hi Roger, yes the guide is about 70% complete. It's taken a little longer than expected due to an unforeseen overseas trip but I'm back on it and due to complete it soon. Dan

[@SirRobinDeSway]

One trick that seems to work for me…using expensive 6x6 film is to put the grey card into the landscape a bit….then take a reading off it with my spotmeter . This gets okay results

[@DanCantero]

That's a really good tip. I've done this with my old AE-1 and it works a treat!

[@leighann5308]

What if your shooting landscape like trees in the distance where do you place the grey card?

[@DanCantero]

You have to place it in the same light that your subject is being illuminated by. So if your subject is in the shade or in the sun. Although for landscape photography I would bracket my exposure to ensure I can recover any shadows or highlights. Hope that helps. :-)

[@KineticAirRgV]

Ty !!

[@DanCantero]

You're welcome!

[@oo0RECON0oo]

I guess to get a balance in between for true middle grey with the grey card then you would lay it flat on your table and get a reading from above. If the range is outside both sides of the Instagram then you would need to exposure blend

[@DanCantero]

Spot on!

[@abelb8612]

When you had the camera set at APERTURE PRIORITY MODE, what about the ISO? Is it set to AUTOMATIC also? And same goes when you set the camera on MANUAL MODE, is the ISO set to AUTOMATIC?

[@DanCantero]

Hi Abel, it is totally up to you. My preference is to set the ISO manually to the lowest setting appropriate to the scene. I do this to force the camera to give me the cleanest image possible. If I'm shooting a run and gun type of event like a wedding, I would set it to automatic. Hope that makes sense.

[@PrttyMxn]

Hi newbie question. Can someone help!? I use the gray card and then set the custom white balance in the camera settings. Depending on the light, I’ll go back into the settings and update the custom gray card settings. In my mind I figure the settings that were set for the first photos are set with the cwb at that time. OR Does that mean ALL Photos in camera now use the latest custom white balance? (And totally forgot about the original custom white balance I had manually set) I hope that makes sense. Am I better off just taking a picture of the gray card before each set of photos and processing the wb post photoshoot? Can someone explain it in non photography language 😅 thanks!!

[@DanCantero]

That's an excellent question. This video talk more about the exposure of the shot so perhaps I'll make a video to show how this works but in the meantime, let me try to see if I can explain the answer. But the way, there are multiple answers to this question but let's try to keep it simple. First question. The white balance simply helps you set the color temperature of your photos. Your camera will have various different pre-set types such as Flash, Tungsten, etc. The thing is that not all of those settings will perfectly match every scenario. So the camera gives you a blank one (called custom white balance) that you can use a grey card to create. Once you create your custom white balance it will remain the same until you create a new custom white balance. The idea is that when the light changes, you create a new custom white balance to update it. The custom white balance will never update on its own, only YOU can update it. Second question. Yes. If you are shooting RAW (and I'm assuming that you are) you can simply include your grey card at the beginning of every lighting scenario. This will let you correct the white balance later on when you are doing your edit. The most important thing here is to remember to actually do this. I know that personally, I get caught up with the composition of the shot, posing my model, etc. and sometime I forget to do this. This is by far the easiest way to do this. I hope this makes sense. If not please let me know. The idea is to help people so if it's not clear please reach out and let me know either here or any of the socials (links below). These types of questions are great because they all contribute to the making of new videos. I hope this helped. Dan. :-)

[@GillesQuennevilleGQ]

Grey cars also used for black and white photography on film or digital. This is not specific or only for colour. And if you compared the Kelvin of the grey and a white card the results are very different.

[@DanCantero]

Very good point.

[@RenowithRamonne]

Good stuff, but skip to 6:50. Thank me later.

[@DanCantero]

Fair enough. :-)

[@omegaman1409]

I wished I brought it to my last shoot. It was trial and error.

[@DanCantero]

We’ve all been there! 😀

[@4toconvert389]

This works great until you are exposing for a wedding dress and trying to retain detail in it. With this method, you are likely to burn out the highlights. It works perfectly for anything darkee than 18% grey but not lighter.

[@DanCantero]

You are spot on. Grey card works on an average so any time you have something that is white it is is going to struggle with it. (Same with snow and sandy beaches). And to be honest, you will struggle to get a use a grey card in a wedding scenario.

[@minimeguju6868]

@@DanCanteroI’m new to photography and it’s a hobby. I bought grey card and it came with white and black. Does either work better for white dress or snow? Just wondering when to you grey vs white vs black? I appreciate any guidance and experience you can share.

[@dwaynearehart2080]

If you are skilled enough to do weddings then you should likely understand you are going to have to underexpose and post process accordingly. For general photography and cutting down a huge learning curve, this video hits the mark!

[@iwritelife3635]

Get to the point

[@DanCantero]

Will do. Thanks for the feedback.