Some Photography Mumbo Jumbo

There’s no online guide to tell what the components are in “4008-1A Bay Waves” and how that’s different from 4001-1A White Pepper.” Without knowing that, I know nothing

camera-level.JPGAs my obsession for photography grows I look for new tools to help me. I just ordered the level on the left which fits the ‘hot shoe’ mount on Clicky. Recently, while taking pictures very close to ground level I’ve found it difficult to keep my shots parallel to the ground. Unless I crawled on my belly there’d be no way to truly know. As soon as my package arrives from Hong Kong (via airmail… so by November) it will be problem solved!

I thought I’d also like a “gray card.” Photographers set their exposure and color balance with these cards, usually a specific 18% gray (whatever that actually means). Before spending $10 or $20 for a piece of laminated paper I figured I try a little ingenuity. This afternoon on the way in to work I stopped at Lowes and headed to the paint department.

I looked through the paint chips and picked out a selection of what looked close to 18% gray. All for nought.

When I began to look closely I realized there was no way for me to know what’s gray and what’s gray with a little green or blue or red or a combination of all three. There’s no online guide to tell what the components are in “4008-1A Bay Waves” and how that’s different from 4001-1A White Pepper.” Without knowing that, I know nothing.

So, thanks for the chips Lowes. Nice experiment. If I want gray, I’ll have to order gray. It’s not the money. I just wanted to beat the system. Who doesn’t?

3 thoughts on “Some Photography Mumbo Jumbo”

  1. I could be totally wrong but wouldn’t you be able to just mix equal parts of pure red, blue, and green paint to get gray?

  2. That would only work if the colors were actually ‘pure’ blue/red/green, equal in every way. I don’t think that will easily come out of a Lowes or Home Depot paint mixer.

  3. The Card you want to buy is a Gretag Macbeth, but at 70 bucks, I understand your trip to Lowes (I tried it too). Adorama sells 2 delta gray cards for $12, but Tiffen sells one on amazon for $24 that covers 9 rgb’s and and nice grayscale…but the best value is “Canon Digital Color Management Guidebook Book with portable Color Chart and Gray Card” for 4.95 on amazon.

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