Although WarmCards were originally created with Professional TV/video cameras in mind, they also work great with digital SLRs. In fact, thousands of digital photographers have already discovered WarmCards. Their feedback, comments, and suggestions have led to the development of an all-new product we call: WarmCards SLR 2.0
This smaller, lighter, less expensive version of WarmCards was designed to better meet the needs of both professional and amateur digital photographers.
The concept of electronic white balance might be new to many still photographers who are still getting comfortable with digital, but it's 30-year old stuff for TV/video shooters, and believe us, there are no shortcuts to getting quality images. You must white balance manually if you want to get consistent results and avoid wasted time processing images by hand on your computer.
Unfortunately, an "accurate" white balance, using an ordinary gray/white reference card, is rarely the best choice. That's why WarmCards were created. WarmCards make it easy for photographers to get a better-looking white balance with their camera, and then to keep the white balance consistent throughout a shoot.
No matter which model of D-SLR you own, setting a custom white balance only takes about 10-30 seconds at the start of your shooting session, and then you are good to go until the lighting changes or you move to a new location.
The problem is that if you set your white balancing by using a plain white card or neutral gray card, you're going to end up with a straight-forward, uninspiring, boring white balance.
But, when you set your white balance using one of the WarmCards you are calibrating the colorimity of the camera so that it starts at a baseline neutral setting (that matches the lighting conditions that exist at that place and that time) and then you are adding a certain amount of "warming" to the white balance so that you get warmer, richer colors.
In portrait photography, wedding photography, and other work where humans are the principal subjects, a true white balance using a gray/white card will NOT deliver pleasing skin tones. A "warmer" white balance is usually what customers and clients prefer, and using WarmCards to customize the color balance of your camera is the best way to do it.
Now, obviously, WarmCards are not appropriate for all occasions. Sometimes a completely neutral white balance is desired (for example, if you are shooting product shots for a client), but when you're shooting people, particularly portraits, a warmer white balance usually looks better.
Using WarmCards is every bit as easy as white balancing on a white card. Just aim the camera at the WarmCard . . . follow the steps to set a custom white balance on your model of camera. . . and you're ready to start shooting. It's that simple -- and you won't have to waste time processing your images later.
Photographers and television cameramen make creative decisions all the time to manually override the supposedly "correct" settings of their cameras. That's what makes photography challenging and sets great photographers apart from mediocre photographers. Knowing when to increase the exposure a stop or two, changing the shutter speed to add a little blur to the action, adjusting the aperture to change the depth of field, putting a filter on the lens, setting up lights or reflectors, and choosing a different flash-mode, are just a few examples of creative decisions that can't be made by the camera automatically. Customizing the white balance to get better results is no different. WarmCards can turn ordinary shots into extraordinary shots. |
