a few questions

[ahoiberg]

1) when setting the gray card (white paper in my case), do you want to hold it up to the lens or just set it in the box where the pen will eventually be?

2) should the flash be off?

3) do you normally zoom in on the subject or just get the camera as close as possible?

if it matters, i use a canon powershot S1 IS

 

[ahoiberg]

one other question...

is it permissible to mix light temperatures? i've got 2 5500K lights and one 6500K.

 

[gketell]

Mixing lights is the best reason for the grey/white card. Do a custom white balance based on your reading off the card and it will automagically adjust for the different lights.

You want the card sitting exactly where the pen will be with the lights exactly where they will be. You also want to tilt it just a bit towards the camera so the lights are reflecting properly for the camera to read them.

You want to have all the lights, including flash, on that will be one when you take your pen photos.

I zoom in to fill the screen with the grey card, get the meter reading, zoom out and take the final photos.

Understand that using white will be great for setting the white balance but not for setting the camera. For that you really need an 18% grey card.


GK