A Fun Way to Achieve White Balance and Save Money

January 6th, 2009

Today’s tutorial is by Jayme of Lucid Graphic Design. She is sharing great way to do a custom white balance and save some pennies at the same time!

What is this secret? Well it is $80-100 less than an Expodisc but not quite as pretty.

It’s a clear Pringles lid with a circle cut out of a coffee filter and attached.

How it’s attached:
3173858813 866b3db500 A Fun Way to Achieve White Balance and Save Money

Finished:
3174695352 59748c4940 A Fun Way to Achieve White Balance and Save Money

What you do is hold it up to your light source filling the camera frame, adjust to properly expose, snap the photo (you’ll need to do this on manual focus). Then follow your camera manual for custom white balance on your camera.

Here are the results, it works awesome & you can see has the best results!

Custom WB with the Pringles lid:
3173681737 6be6eb0ace A Fun Way to Achieve White Balance and Save Money

With AWB:
3174518460 aa2487ee47 A Fun Way to Achieve White Balance and Save Money

With the Shade preset since I was inside, no lights on, next to a window:
3174518586 7d0cab8426 A Fun Way to Achieve White Balance and Save Money

I hope everyone enjoys their new craft project – and their new photography tool. Please comment if you have a unique way to accomplish a task – as I would love to feature more readers on my blog.

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Tags: color correction, correct colors in photoshop, Photography Tips, photography tips, Photography Tips, white balance

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 at 8:21 pm and is filed under Photography Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

12 Comments

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1. Barb Says:
9:33 pmJanuary 6th, 2009
I read about this long ago and always wondered how it worked. I don’t make coffee so never have a filter to play around with. I did just read somewhere that for somebody who did a bunch of tests with products & this way, the Pringles lid came in 2nd!

I did just buy myself a digital grey card, so I won’t need to beg a coffee filter or Pringles lid from a friend, but I’m glad to know this works in a pinch.
2. Sheri Johnson Says:
12:34 amJanuary 7th, 2009
I would definitely be game for trying this. I love creative ideas. I was noticing for the expo disc, you would have to buy more than one if you use different size lenses, that didn’t appeal to me. I wonder what size this will accommodate.
3. Sheri Johnson Says:
12:34 amJanuary 7th, 2009
I would definitely be game for trying this. I love creative ideas. I was noticing for the expo disc, you would have to buy more than one if you use different size lenses, that didn’t appeal to me. I wonder what size this will accommodate.
4. jodi Says:
9:10 amJanuary 7th, 2009
this is so cool! even though i shoot raw 100%, i am definitely giving this a try.
5. Adam Says:
9:48 amJanuary 7th, 2009
With products like the Expodisc, you purchase the largest size (i.e. 77mm) and that will work for the 77mm and all sizes smaller. You simply hold the disc to the smaller lenses versus screwing on (same way you do with this Pringles lid method).
6. Haley Warner Says:
4:41 pmJanuary 7th, 2009
Thanks for always giving us such great ideas!
7. Jen Says:
9:18 amJanuary 9th, 2009
I’ve never done the custom WB on my camera before – when I’m concerned, I just switch to RAW. But this is great! I realize I still have so much more to learn about photography, even though I’ve done it for years.
8. White balance lens cap — DiyPhotoBits.com — A few bits and pieces about photography Says:
9:09 pmJanuary 9th, 2009
[...] from the Rialto when I though I’d lost my original Nikon cap), which I could merge with a Pringles can lid with or without a coffee filter. Bookmark It Hide [...]
9. Tracey Says:
12:08 amJanuary 13th, 2009
Oh wow! Thanks for the fabulous advice. Money saving too.
10. Tracy Says:
1:05 amJanuary 13th, 2009
Just what I need — an excuse to buy some Prigles!!! Thanks for the info!
11. Kansas A Says:
2:00 amJanuary 16th, 2009
What a GREAT idea! I’ll definitely be making one of these in the morning to add to my camera bag, thanks
12. Joanna Says:
8:23 pmJuly 26th, 2009
This is great! Thank you for sharing

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