Stephen Zeller | Photography

If you’re shooting in the studio or even on location, here’s a quick tip that will save you a lot of time when processing your photos in Photoshop or Lightroom: use a gray card.  A gray card is a little card similar to what you see in the picture above that gives you a nice neutral gray.  In Lightroom or Camera Raw you simply select your White Balance eye dropper and click on the neutral gray and your white balance will be right on every time.  This particular card was included with Scott Kelby’s book, “Photoshop CS3 for Digital Photographers”.  The bottom left corner is Camera Raw Gray and I can click on that and I have my white balance for all of my photos in the series.  Now, if you change lighting or setup in any way, I highly advise that you have your subject hold the gray card again for another shot to ensure that you get a correct WB setting.  You can pick a gray card from most photography stores for next to nothing.

That’s today’s Quick Tip.  I hope you can put it to good use!  Have a great day!