A Fun Way to Achieve White Balance and Save Money

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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 Photography Tips

Finished:
3174695352_59748c4940 A Fun Way to Achieve White Balance and Save Money Photography Tips

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 Photography Tips

With AWB:
3174518460_aa2487ee47 A Fun Way to Achieve White Balance and Save Money Photography Tips

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 Photography Tips

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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  1. Barb on January 6, 2009 at 9:33 pm

    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 on January 7, 2009 at 12:34 am

    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 on January 7, 2009 at 12:34 am

    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 on January 7, 2009 at 9:10 am

    this is so cool! even though i shoot raw 100%, i am definitely giving this a try.

  5. Adam on January 7, 2009 at 9:48 am

    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 on January 7, 2009 at 4:41 pm

    Thanks for always giving us such great ideas!

  7. Jen on January 9, 2009 at 9:18 am

    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. Tracey on January 13, 2009 at 12:08 am

    Oh wow! Thanks for the fabulous advice. Money saving too.

  9. Tracy on January 13, 2009 at 1:05 am

    Just what I need — an excuse to buy some Prigles!!! Thanks for the info!

  10. Kansas A on January 16, 2009 at 2:00 am

    What a GREAT idea! I’ll definitely be making one of these in the morning to add to my camera bag, thanks 🙂

  11. Joanna on July 26, 2009 at 8:23 pm

    This is great! Thank you for sharing 🙂

  12. Carol on April 15, 2012 at 10:57 pm

    Another cheap way to achieve WB is to use a styrofoam cup. 🙂

  13. Kristie on September 23, 2012 at 2:23 pm

    I tried this today. Worked GREAT. Thank you for this post. 🙂

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