Home > Consumer Reviews > Lastolite LL LR1250 12-Inch Ezybalance Card (Grey/White)

This is a tool that will improve my workflow and my results. I've been reluctant to take a gray card with me in the past because of their size. So I'd correct color in post as best I could (shooting raw helps, of course). With this product I can now quickly do a very accurate custom WB and since it folds down easily to a very compact size it can fit easily in even my smallest camera bag.

I put the Ezbalance to a real test at a recent NBA game where I was luck enough to have courtside seats. The lighting in an arena is tough to balance. With the Ezbalance card I set the custom WB and also used it to set a manual exposure (ISO1250, f3.2, 1/500). Shot the entire game that way, with the best results of any sporting event yet - perfect color and exposure on every shot. Post-processing couldn't have been easier - crop, resize, light USM and that's pretty much it. Since there was no underexposure to speak of noise was more than acceptable.

Highly recommended from someone who's tried them all.

This is a great product. Every photographer new to photography that do not understand how to set the white balance or exposure using the camera's built in light meter, should purchase this 18% gray card or this 18% gray card tool.

This tool helps take the guess work out of getting the correct white balance and exposure setting right the first time. Even though I know how to use Photoshop to correct the white balance and exposure, it's more efficient to have the correct settings from the very start, which means less time making corrections during post processing.

To determine the exposure using the card fist I set my camera's ISO speed to match the lighting conditions, such as outside ISO 100 indoors ISO 400, meter to spot and mode dial to auto. Then fill the viewfinder with the card and be sure that the focus is out of focus so that you are reading the overall card and not just a spot on the card, with the flash set to off take the picture.

Now playback the image and display the exposure setting set by the camera, such as f-stop and shutter speed. Now set the camera to manual and set the f-stop and shutter to correspond to the auto settings. Now if your camera has a manual white balance setting follow the above methods to set the white balance. My Nikno D60 has just such a function, which will allow for setting the white balance by taking a picture of a gray or white card to set the manual white balance and hold that setting in memory or use another pictured stored on the media card with correct the white balance settings.

Now your settings are correct for exposure and white balance and you can start taking pictures. Remember if your location or the lighting changes you must recalibrate the white balance and exposure.

If you are experienced in using Photoshop, open an image and on the menu bar got layer > new adjustment layer > levels and click Ok to create the adjustment layer, select the middle gray eyedropper and click the gray card in the image. You may or may not see a change, if the exposure or white balance was set correctly there will be no change, but if the setting were not correct you will see the exposure and white balance change.

The out come that you want is no change, this will mean that everything was set correctly and that no adjustments are needed. But if there were changes and there are other image taken under the same lighting conditions you can save the level setting and use it to correct the other images, with the levels dialog window still open click the save button and give the level settings a name and save it and save the corrections made to the image.

To use the saved settings to correct another image just open the image to be corrected and on the menu bar select layer > new adjustment layer > levels and click Ok to create the adjustment layer. Click the load button and load the file that you named and saved in the previous steps, the image will change to reflect the correct exposure and white balance click Ok and save the image.

This will help in post processing by allowing you to make corrects in a timely manner.

If you use Photoshop's Lightroom you can save the setting and then apply it to many images at one time, which will speed up the post processing time.

I have been very pleased with this grey card. Love the fact that it is collapsible down to a little 4" square. Fits right in my camera backpack so I have it whenever I may need it.

I would recommend it over regular grey cards anyday!

White balance is no longer hit-or-miss with the Lastolite EzyBalance Card and the custom WB feature of my Canon 30D. It collapses to something I can stick in my pocket for those occasions when I do not want to burdened with a camera bag.

I bought this just before I moved to RAW format - and honestly didn't need it after I did (it's easier to do white balance fixes in RAW for me). So I ended up using it more as a reflector for close up portraits (placed at the chest to bring light up to the face).

As far as grey cards go, this is a great idea and concept - and the cross hairs in the grey are really useful for auto focus cameras and save time. And, of course, it doubles as a reflector, which is also nice.

Very small and portable, easy to fold up, goes into a camera bag with no added weight and very little bulk.