Customer Reviews

Lastolite LL LR1250 12-Inch Ezybalance Card (Grey/White)

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a great product. Every photographer new to photography that do not understand how to set the white balance or exposure using the camera's built in light meter, should purchase this 18% gray card or this 18% gray card tool.

This tool helps take the guess work out of getting the correct white balance and exposure setting right the first time. Even though I know how to use Photoshop to correct the white balance and exposure, it's more efficient to have the correct settings from the very start, which means less time making corrections during post processing.

To determine the exposure using the card fist I set my camera's ISO speed to match the lighting conditions, such as outside ISO 100 indoors ISO 400, meter to spot and mode dial to auto. Then fill the viewfinder with the card and be sure that the focus is out of focus so that you are reading the overall card and not just a spot on the card, with the flash set to off take the picture.

Now playback the image and display the exposure setting set by the camera, such as f-stop and shutter speed. Now set the camera to manual and set the f-stop and shutter to correspond to the auto settings. Now if your camera has a manual white balance setting follow the above methods to set the white balance. My Nikno D60 has just such a function, which will allow for setting the white balance by taking a picture of a gray or white card to set the manual white balance and hold that setting in memory or use another pictured stored on the media card with correct the white balance settings.

Now your settings are correct for exposure and white balance and you can start taking pictures. Remember if your location or the lighting changes you must recalibrate the white balance and exposure.

If you are experienced in using Photoshop, open an image and on the menu bar got layer > new adjustment layer > levels and click Ok to create the adjustment layer, select the middle gray eyedropper and click the gray card in the image. You may or may not see a change, if the exposure or white balance was set correctly there will be no change, but if the setting were not correct you will see the exposure and white balance change.

The out come that you want is no change, this will mean that everything was set correctly and that no adjustments are needed. But if there were changes and there are other image taken under the same lighting conditions you can save the level setting and use it to correct the other images, with the levels dialog window still open click the save button and give the level settings a name and save it and save the corrections made to the image.

To use the saved settings to correct another image just open the image to be corrected and on the menu bar select layer > new adjustment layer > levels and click Ok to create the adjustment layer. Click the load button and load the file that you named and saved in the previous steps, the image will change to reflect the correct exposure and white balance click Ok and save the image.

This will help in post processing by allowing you to make corrects in a timely manner.

If you use Photoshop's Lightroom you can save the setting and then apply it to many images at one time, which will speed up the post processing time.

This is a tool that will improve my workflow and my results. I've been reluctant to take a gray card with me in the past because of their size. So I'd correct color in post as best I could (shooting raw helps, of course). With this product I can now quickly do a very accurate custom WB and since it folds down easily to a very compact size it can fit easily in even my smallest camera bag.

I put the Ezbalance to a real test at a recent NBA game where I was luck enough to have courtside seats. The lighting in an arena is tough to balance. With the Ezbalance card I set the custom WB and also used it to set a manual exposure (ISO1250, f3.2, 1/500). Shot the entire game that way, with the best results of any sporting event yet - perfect color and exposure on every shot. Post-processing couldn't have been easier - crop, resize, light USM and that's pretty much it. Since there was no underexposure to speak of noise was more than acceptable.

Highly recommended from someone who's tried them all.

I have been very pleased with this grey card. Love the fact that it is collapsible down to a little 4" square. Fits right in my camera backpack so I have it whenever I may need it.

I would recommend it over regular grey cards anyday!

Not much to say other than it is much sturdier than a standard gray card made from cardboard and it fold up into a small pouch which makes it easy to carry with you, wherever you go. Great product!

I'm just a amateur just trying to improve my photos via post production and since I have been using Lastolite for a balance card the results have been very impressive. I like that it folds up quickly into it's own pouch and it is very lightweight.

White balance is no longer hit-or-miss with the Lastolite EzyBalance Card and the custom WB feature of my Canon 30D. It collapses to something I can stick in my pocket for those occasions when I do not want to burdened with a camera bag.

Product arrived without incident & works as advertised to set white balance & exposure. It's a convenient size to keep in my camera bag, but large enough for the job. Also can be used to bounce flash for better lighting than on camera flash.

Before getting this tool, I was never confident that I was chosing the right white balance in my post processing. In fact looking at pictures taken over the year, my color varied greatly. Now, I set my custom white balance with this and my color is always the same and always correct. It is a perfect size. Large enough to easily fill the frame, yet when folded up easily fits in my camera bag.

I have been very pleased ~ and amazed ~ at the difference this tool is making in the white balance of my images. As helpful as the white balance presets on the camera (in my case it is a 450D/Xsi) they all pale in comparison to the ability to custom set the white balance for each situation/image.

A couple of notes regarding the Lastolite LL LR1250 12-Inch Ezybalance Card: It is a little awkward to put back into the zippered pouch ~ if you've ever used pop-up goals for soccer you have some idea of what you have to do to put this back in the bag (the Lastolite LL LR1250 12-Inch Ezybalance Card is much smaller than a soccer goal, but it springs into place, and has to be twisted back to the smaller size).

Also, as someone who is still new to "serious" photography a *little* bit of information about the proper use of this item would have been appreciated ~ none was included. I did find helpful information on the Lastolite website [...]

One of the most important things that you can do to improve your digital photos is to make sure you use the appropriate white balance. The white balance presets are okay, but are often not quite right. This tool is perfect for setting the white balance on a DSLR. Any white or gray surface can be used to set the white balance on a DSLR, but sometimes you can't find a perfectly white or perfectly gray thing. Having one of these is like having photo insurance. It folds up so small that it will fit easily into any camera bag.

However, some people may find the small size of this particular card to be a drawback. Personally, I'd rather have something small to carry around. But if you're mostly a studio photographer, you might want one of the larger (20-inch or 30-inch) cards.