We hear a great deal about shutter speed, aperture and ISO, but there’s another control we need to remember and often don’t. That’s the white balance. For those of you shooting video on a DSLR it’s particularly important. Video folks spend much more time worrying about color balance than still photographers. One of the reasons is that changing color in post is more complicated in video than in still photography.

In my opinion, everyone should pay attention to white balance no matter what they shoot. It saves time in post and therefore is a good thing.

You might know that we’re sponsored by ExpoImaging. I’ve never reviewed their Expodisc assuming that folks would just ignore my review since it features a sponsored product. But I have had some requests for more information on how and why it works, so I’ve decided to oblige.

The difference between using an ExpoDisc and a traditional gray card is simple, as is the WHY or reason I use one.

1. The ExpoDisc doesn’t introduce any color cast
2. The ExpoDisc has the ability to give you white balance info via incident rather than reflective meter readings and is more accurate and easier to handle
3. If you go to ten camera stores and buy 10 different gray cards – even of the same brand – and you put them to the TRUE test to see if they are indeed 18% gray – using a spectrometer – you will see that each of them gives a different reading – thus no gray card is truly accurate
4. It works better in mixed lighting than a gray card
5. It’s a time saver

To take advantage of the ExpoDisc’s features, you just put it on the camera lens and point directly at you light source rather than pointing it at your scene as you would do with a traditional camera metering off a gray card. You make an exposure and use that exposure to set your white balance. As long as the light doesn’t change, you’re good to go.

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This post sponsored by the Digital SLR Store