DIY: Grey Card at Hand


Here’s another great idea. It's a grey card for your iPhone or iPod.

Chris Bartelski made this one so he could white balance his images and then created the image above on photoshop and put it on his iPhone.

To download the jpg file you just click on the above picture and then save as to your workplace, afterward copy it to your iPhone, iPod or any other screening device (such as your PSP) and send the results in.

All Chris asks is that if you test it to be sure and send him your results!

I do not have an iPhone but I tested it on my iPod and it works like charm.

Take a look at a small video he posted where he explains how to use the iPhone Grey Card with Adobe Lightroom.



8 comments:

brfuk said...

But the iphone screen has a tint? And being an LCD the colour varies depending on the angle the screen is viewed at also? Seems like a lot of variables to me...

Anonymous said...

How can that ever deliver an accurate grey balance? All you're photographing is a mix of the colortemp of the iphone's backlight and the actual colortemp...

Quana said...

that and the fact that the iPhone emits light rather then reflects light it means that no mater what colour of light you place the iPhone gray card in it will always default to the colour tone of the iphone rather then the light in the room... so unless the light you are using to light your subject is from an LCD I can't see this working so well.

Cool idea though. WIsh it actually worked that way ;)

Kevin Barber said...

I really don't see how that would work. The color cast coming from the backlight on the iPhone is a different light source than the ambient light from the rest of the scene. So, until the iPhone softbox comes out (and I hear any day now ;-) ), I would imagine the results would be skewed.

orcmid said...

I love this idea. It can be used on an MP3 player with a neutral display surface and I bet my Windows Mobile phone can use it too.

I don't usually pack a grey card around but I've always wanted a small substitute. Having the RGB band is also cool.

Unknown said...

huh? the iphone is emitting light...? and is so bright you can see it in daylight. It's designed not to be affected by the lighting in a room or outdoors. That just doesn't seem like a grey card at all...

this is a bad bad idea. But anyone is welcome challenge me. Pre-set the white balance on anything but auto and then shoot a gray card and the phone side by side in two different lighting scenarios with the same WB, then check out the difference...

Unknown said...

where is my old commment? this post lost almost all credibility for this site for me.

Anonymous said...

another great way you could utilize a grey card like that is to print them up on business cards, either for your own use or as a cool little networking tool. it's easy to customize things like that at PrintsMadeEasy with their design tool and very good pricing