WhiBal card a bit cool in Tungsten lighting?

[ATHiker95]

I noticed that in my room at night, I can set a Kelvin temp of 2800 with my Canon 20D and it is about spot on. Gives a very slight slight warm cast but nothing like the tunsten setting. I would say it accurately reflects the lighting in the room. When I put the whibal card into play and click on the light gray (or white), I tend to get a cooler white - more of a daylight white I'd say.

Why would this be?

Thanks,
Mark

[MichaelT]

Because the WhiBal is being accurate like it is supposed to be. But in some cases (like sunset and indoor mood lighting) you do not want accurate. You want artistic leeway. In those cases, you can use WhiBal as an accuarate starting point and then deviate from there, or do not use it at all. I like to use it in those sotuation because sometimes i want true colors and other times I want the warm glow.

[ATHiker95]

ah, good point and that makes sense. Thank you! Incidentally, if I were to shoot some jpgs alone (shudder), which card is more useful to set a manual wb? Shoot I use the light gray, the medium gray or the white card?

Thanks!
Mark

[MichaelT]

You would use the dark gray card with the middle gray eyedropper on Photoshop levels or curves as one method. But always the dark gray for JPEG and the light gray for RAW (although the RAW is not that critical).

[bitbytes9]

Why dary gray for jpeg not light gray ???

[MichaelT]

Because the middle eye-dropper is searching for a middle gray, not a light gray. If you use the light gray the image will get darker then it should be.

[bitbytes9]

Oic, thanks.