Use a grey card for accurate colours

Friday 13 June 2025, 14:07 by Elja Trum | 2,991 views | 2 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

Want to make sure your photos have accurate colours? For every new lighting setup, first take a photo of your model holding a grey card. You can use the grey card to set the exact white balance in your photo.

Maud - f/9, 1/160s, 100 ISO @ 67mm
You can then select that white balance when editing your photos. For example, in Lightroom with the eyedropper tool. Copy that white balance to all the photos you took with the same lighting setup. This way, you can be sure that your colours are correct.

Using a grey card is essential when photographing on assignment. The colours simply need to be right. It is also important when you want to create a consistent look. The correct exposure and white balance are the basis for this.

There is one step further. You can also use a ColorChecker Passport. For when the colours need to be absolutely perfect.

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About the author

Elja Trum is the founder of Photofacts and online photography course website Photofacts Academy. He has been writing about photography since 2006. Elja is also the author of (Dutch) books on composition, black-and-white photography, flash photography and portrait photography.

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2 comments

Arie wrote on Tuesday 17 June 2025 at 13:51 | reply
Some cameras can save the white balance measured with a gray card and then continue shooting with it until the lighting conditions change.
Translated from Dutch.

Paul van Aken wrote on Tuesday 17 June 2025 at 15:49 | reply
Well, nice. It only makes sense if color rendering is super important, with flash it's absolutely unnecessary, in all outdoor conditions way too much hassle, because the light constantly changes
Translated from Dutch.

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Would you like to take better photos and keep up with what is happening in photography? Photofacts publishes articles that teach you something about photography — from a product announcement to a practical shooting tip or a look at a website. Photofacts covers photography every day and is a hobby project of Elja Trum's that got out of hand. The articles are written by a team of volunteer authors. If you would enjoy writing one or more articles for Photofacts, do get in touch.More about Photofacts

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