The Gray Card.

It's magic. Truly it is. It takes away color cast. With one click.

So here's the scoop: I had Littlest Dude stand in the shade and hold the gray card. He's a good gray-card-holder. :-) Upon opening the image in Lightroom and/or Photoshop, one click on the gray card (in the image) simply and quickly fixes any color cast. In Lightroom, I click on the white balance eye-dropper/sampler. In Photoshop, I click on the gray eye-dropper in the Curves box.

Observe the following before (SOOC) and afters (SOOC + click):





This next one shows 1. SOOC; 2. LR SOOC + click; 3. PS SOOC + my manual curves adjustment.



And here's where the beauty of Lightroom comes in ... if I take a series of pictures in the same place, I only have to 1. fix the first picture; 2. select the rest of the pictures (that don't have the gray card in them); and 3. click on "sync" to fix the rest with just one click. So fast. So efficient. Just one more reason to love Lightroom.

Before sync:


After sync:


And more good news: my gray card was free. And yours can be, too :-). Get thee to a home improvement superstore. My "gray card" is a Wilsonart Laminate sample: D90-60 North Sea.

Orange County Family Photographer