Digital Image Flow DGK Color Tools Premium White Balance Card Set with Premium Lanyard (Set of Three Cards)

by Digital Image Flow

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 3.4 x 2.2 x 0.1 inches ; 0.8 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: B000HDFH6W
• Item model number: DGK-2
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 14, 2007

Product Description

The Digital Grey Kard is the #1 selling White Balance Card for three reasons: 1) Certified performance and quality. Our tests show the performance of Digital Grey Kard is superior to the other card. 2) Guaranteed satisfaction - We guarantee you will be 100% satisfied with your Digital Grey Kard or your money back! 3) Unbeatable Value. You get the best card at the best price. Professional photographers, Adobe Photoshop Certified Instructors, and Digital Photography Review Site Editors use the Digital Grey Kard for their personal white balance tool, and you should too. Spectrophotometer measured Lab color values of L* 63.8 a* -1.6 b*-0.4 are perfect for white balance and RAW image converters. Works with all digital cameras, as well as both JPEG and RAW files. Item Includes: Premium Digital Grey Kard consists of three color calibrated reference cards, a premium lanyard with detachable clip, and a user's guide that makes it easy to achieve perfect color balance. The premium lanyard makes it easy to detach the Digital Grey Kard during use while keeping the lanyard around your neck or on your camera bag. Digital Grey Kard is proudly made in Boston, Massachusetts USA. Perfect digital color every time(tm) - guaranteed. Why pay more? Don't take our word for it- Here is a sample of the 100% positive feedback our product gets: "This is the best customer service I have ever had buying from the internet. Absolutely the best!" "Incredibly fast shipping - less than three days from order to delivery." "I'm very pleased with the results I'm getting from this Digital Grey Kard so far. The results under tungsten lights are amazing. THANK YOU." "these cards work wonderfully...a must for any photographer!" The Digital Grey Kard gives you perfect digital color every time. We guarantee your colors and we guarantee your savings!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

90 of 94 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great white balance - best price, August 7, 2006

By 

Frank Edema "photo moto" (intransit, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Digital Image Flow DGK Color Tools Premium White Balance Card Set with Premium Lanyard (Set of Three Cards) (Electronics)

This card has three cards, white, black, and gray, so you can use it for RAW or for JPEG (see more below). The user's guide is helpful, but not super technical. The price is unbeatable for what you get. Shipping is fast. I used this card to shoot a friend's wedding and the results were fantastic! Basically this is a cheap and easy way to get perfect colors in your digital pix.

Before I got this white balance card, I got a whIbaL card, which was a lot more expensive. I was disappointed because it has only one card, and the user's guide on CD-Rom they show in the picture either is out of stock or never existed because they wouldn't send me one when I asked. My colors have been super accurate with the DIgital Grey Kard - I don't think it's worth spending more than twice as much to get the wHibAl card.

I shoot RAW files mostly, and in Photoshop or Photoshop Lightroom I use 1-click white balance in the RAW converter. During a photo shoot I simply shoot an image of the gray card under the same lighting conditions as my subject. Then in post-production (using Lightroom) I open the image of the Digital Grey Kard in the RAW converter. I use a 5 pixel white balance dropper to get a good sample of the color of the gray card. Then I select all of the images that were shot under those same lighting conditions, and click the 'sync' button, making sure I sync the white balance only. That's all I have to do to get perfect color. Fast, accurate, easy.

When shooting JPEG, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom will still allow me to do some white balance correction, essentially using the same steps as outlined above. But with JPEG, the image quality is degraded somewhat by the process, so RAW is a better way to go.

There is another way to get great white balance for JPEG using this card. The Digital Grey Kard is also perfect for setting in-camera white balance, which actually is the best way for JPEG photographers to get perfect colors without having to use Photoshop or Lightroom.

I use the white card and the black card sometimes to set levels in Photoshop. To set the white and black point in the Photoshop "levels' control, I shoot an image of all three cards, and open the image in Photoshop. I go to image->adjust_.levels an use the highlight dropper tool on the white card and the shadow dropper tool on the black card, finally I use the midtone dropper tool on the gray card. This technique is great for setting up a JPEG for maximum dynamic range - which allows you to take advantage of the full capabilities of the output printer or display device.

Get this white balance card - it's great for the money.

30 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gray card is on target every time., October 6, 2007

By 

DrG "Glenn" (Cuero, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Digital Image Flow DGK Color Tools Premium White Balance Card Set with Premium Lanyard (Set of Three Cards) (Electronics)

Before I used this product I used white paper as recommended by Canon for my 30D. I put lines on the paper for focus and set white balance as custom. The paper was difficult to use and keep with me. Since buying the gray digital card, I have found it to be more accurate than white paper and easier to use. The digital gray card produces perfect custom white balance and works every time. It has a focus spot to get the correct image for setting up in-camera custom white balance. One time I used both the gray card and the white card (on the lanyard) and found the gray card produced the correct white balance over the white card. Now I never take a shot without setting the custom white balance to the gray card. I do this in-camera so I don't have to make adjustments in post processing. The gray card also gives the correct light reflection for digital camera exposure. Most books say the gray card should reflect at 18%, but that is not correct for digital. See article on the internet by Thom Hogan [....] who says digital camera makers set exposure meters to near 12% gray reflectance, 18% is based on printing standards. This gray card is closer to 12% and is very accurate.
I like the lanyard. When I'm outdoors I keep it on my neck so I can periodically reset the custom white balance as I shoot. Inside under lights, I use it one time and I'm set for the shoot. I highly recommend this card for serious photography, and it is inexpensive as photo equipment goes.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Works Great-short comings yes but--, April 7, 2009

By 

N. Pisani (Albany, OR USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Digital Image Flow DGK Color Tools Premium White Balance Card Set with Premium Lanyard (Set of Three Cards) (Electronics)

As a retired negative wedding photographer, I want spot-on results. But with the digital age I had trouble getting exposure/white balance correct. Yes, the processor could correct for my "slight" errors. I did not appreciate how important white balance was, nor that it can change as easy as exposure. After a couple of tests w/this card. I was amazed at the skin tones I got. I used a drug store type quality (Costco) for convenience & speed and got great exposures! Just think what a higher quality firm (i.e. Dale Labs) can do with my files!
Photo correction programs: Just use the "eye-dropper" tool; get color corrections- presto!
Short comings: The cards could be larger! The instructions could be more detailed- The makers of this product could benefit from comments here!