One of the boilerplate phrases in the blog are words to the effect of ‘…white balance set using the WhiBal card…’. What the heck is a WhiBal card? How do you use it? Where can I get mine? Does it operate by itself, or do I need to do something? Be patient friends, all will be answered. First, the WhiBal card, or generically the white balance card: This is a high-class piece of plastic manufactured to exacting standards by a number of companies. I use the ones made by the good folks over at RawWorkflow Inc. The device is an updated version of the photographers ‘gray card’, which reflects light falling upon it providing (after compensation) a reliable color reference.
To understand the need for this device, consider the following situation… You are standing in a room filled with both familiar and unfamiliar objects, and the only light source is a red lamp. Can you properly identify the true color of objects in the room under such circumstances? Well first, since you will recognize some of the objects, you will be able to guess their proper color even if they look weird in the red light – this is cheating of course, but you cannot help doing it so we forgive you. Even if you didn’t recognize all the objects you would still be able to make a good guess of the color for all of the objects since your brain is fantastically good at compensating for shifts in the color of the reflected light. Once your brain establishes a color shift compensation, all objects will be interpreted in the same way.
We need this, or at least our ancient ancestors did. Imagine you are running around in the jungle at dawn and the jungle is all over bathed in beautiful morning light. Having awoken with a ferocious appetite you scout around for something to munch. Soon you spy what appears to be a lovely green apple in the lush overgrowth (it’s heirloom apples, apparently they grew that way). Complicating things is that the glowing morning light shifts the color of light reflecting from the surface of the apple towards the yellow or the red depending. Without the ability to compensate for the color shift, you might not even perceive the apple. Worse yet, guarding the lovely green apple is a serpent of nearly the same color hidden in there amongst some leaves of, again, almost the same color. Without the ability to color compensate you might just miss seeing the snake and get bit and, because in the ancient time all snakes were incredibly poisonous, your contribution to human genetics would tragically be cut short.
Okay, back to the card. Unfortunately, our instrumentalities (cameras) are not very much like us. They need to be calibrated so that we can interpret the data they generate in terms that represent something useful, maybe even artistical, to us. A white balance card is just a convenient reference color made out of virtually indestructible material. Photo processing software programs like Photoshop, Lightroom, Capture NX2, etc., allow you to establish a light shift compensation (think of it as an overall color compensation) using the white balance card, which can then be subsequently applied to other photos recorded in the same light conditions.
Finally, operation: It’s up to you. Here Carla, High Priestess of the WhiBal, demonstrates positioning the white balance card in the optimal spot for reflectance readings. Note the ceremonial headdress and sacred goggles.
