Set Perfect White-Balance With Starbucks Coffee-Cup Lid
Posted in: Hacks, Mods and DIY, Today's Chili
How do you achieve the correct white-balance for your photos? Do you leave the camera on auto, like me, and fix things up later with RAW processing software if you need to? Or do you use the $70 Expodisc, a painstakingly calibrated piece of white plastic which fits over the lens and smushes together all the light in a scene into one big circle, ready to be processed by your SLR?
If you answer was “$70!? What the hell are you talking about now, Sorrel?” then I have the perfect hack for you. The Emergency Expodisc, a light-measuring device that consists of nothing more than the lid of a Starbucks coffee-cup.
Steve Bennett’s “invention” is simple. Grab an unused lid from any coffee-shop, pop it on the front of the lens, focus to infinity and take a custom white-balance reading. You should now have a setting either perfect for the scene (single light-source) or a good compromise (different sources).
And before the Expodisc folks come running, we know that a plastic coffee-cup lid isn’t going to be a perfect neutral white, but if you’re shooting JPEGs, it sure beats the hell out of the glowing red pictures you get when shooting indoors.
Emergency Expodisc [Steve Bennett / Flickr via DIY Photography]
Real Expodisc [Expo Imaging]
Photo: Steve Bennett
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