Incredible White Balance tool

This Expodisc pro thing keeps cropping up in all the forums. i should just copy and paste my response over to save effort. They work but for the wrong reason. They average and thus "white balance" the entire scene INCLUDING: The background, stray lights, objects etc. Is that REALLY what you want in White Balancing? No it isn't unless you are doing run & gun ENG work. So they realized that this method bleaches skin tones. Solution, introduce some strands of cyan to compensate. Brilliant! Or is it?
White Balancing is really about CALLIBRATING your camera to the Key Light hitting your main subject, and then modulating the color of all other lights to conform to your lighting strategy.
This can only be done properly with a bounce card that has been 'adjusted' for the actual subject. There's a company out there that makes good ones. They're tinted to compensate for skin tone wash-out.
So unless you're doing a lot of run n gun, the filters will ruin your chances of orchestrating the relationships between foreground, midground and background, main light, fills and background illumination.
 
The Expodisc *is* designed for run and gun work. To be precise it was designed for still photography use, with an emphasis on photojournalists, event shooters, etc.
 
Dunno what Zephy is talking about, but if you white balance to light source like it says to do then it works fine...

I still use mines daily with video.
 
I'm guessing he's talking about more complex light sources (which can really screw it up if you're targeting for a particular look) but for stills-wise you'll adjust the WB manually or simply do it in RAW after the shoot. The Expodisc is really best for JPG shooters who need minimal post processing.
 
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