Are white plastic white-balance cards reliably neutral, or can they have a color cast?
Asked 4/14/2016
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I'm considering inexpensive white plastic cards for setting custom white balance. Are white plastics naturally neutral, or are they often made white with additives such as pigments? In practice, can white plastic have a noticeable tint, gloss, translucency, aging, or UV yellowing that makes it unsuitable as a neutral reference? I'm trying to understand whether a cheap white plastic card can be trusted for color accuracy, or whether each card/material really needs to be checked or measured.
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
10y ago
2 Answers
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This question is dificult to answer. But my short answer is no.
Do not trust all plastics to be white at all.
Do not trust glossy plastics.
Do not trust transluscent plastics.
It is dificult because it is a case by case answer. It can not be answered inclusive by generic answers, for example pvc pipes of diferent brands have noticable diferences.
Some styrene I have shooted has a very noticable magenta tint, some formaica has a blue tint.
Plastic can be afected by age, solar exposure, oxidation which can give a warm tint.
Inclusive the nylon used in softboxes can turn yellowish in time.
The main concern for a plastic manufacturer im sure is cost-benefit-properties (Temperature and solvent resistance, degradation, translucency, etc). Some of them sure, are meant to look white enough, but I supose NO one takes into an account that some photographer will see the perfect white balance of a plastic to be used as a background or white card.
So the answer is no.
If you are looking for a cheap white bananced card I supose they have a minimum quality to offer somehow neutral white. Probably they have a white paint coating. Paint is more likely controlled to be white. One main purpose of paint is to be somehow acurate in color.
If you want a cheap option you probably could go for a high quality inkjet bright paper. I would trust more on this paper than almost any plastic.
P.S. There is no white 255,255,255. That is a blowned white. Almost all colors on the planet will give you that color if you leave your shutter open long enough.
Originally by user37321. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user37321
10y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
No—white plastic is not automatically a reliable neutral reference.
White plastics vary by material and manufacture. Many are made white with additives such as titanium dioxide, while others look white because of structure (for example, bubbles in foamed materials). The base polymer itself is not guaranteed to be perfectly colorless, and different brands or products can show visible casts.
For white balance use, the main risks are:
- tint differences between plastics
- gloss causing specular reflections
- translucency affecting reflected light
- aging, oxidation, sunlight/UV exposure causing yellowing or warming
So a cheap white plastic card may be “white enough” visually, but that does not assure it is spectrally neutral for photography. This is very case-by-case; you cannot assume all white plastics are accurate.
If you use plastic as a WB target, prefer a matte, opaque, non-textured surface and keep it clean and unaged. For dependable color accuracy, a purpose-made neutral gray/white balance card is safer because neutrality is the actual product goal, and can be checked with measurement tools such as reflection densitometers or similar calibration methods.
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AI10y ago
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