Written by
Kyrylo Antonenko
In dental photography, white balance is not a trivial matter. It is the foundation of accurate color.
That's why I recommend working only with two reliable gray cards — WhiBal and eLAB.
They undergo quality control, and the color deviation on the a and b scale is only ±0.5
That means you get the most accurately rendered color, not “somewhere near the truth.”
WhiBal — I use it for portrait photos. It is large, about the size of a face, and is perfect for such shots.
eLAB — for intraoral photos, as it is small and fits neatly next to the two central incisors.
Now these “no name” Chinese cards — theoretically suitable, but in practice, it’s all different:
The material is uncontrolled, the shade of gray varies, and each card provides its own white balance.
This completely contradicts the very idea — to set a stable, accurate color.
So if you want to be a color nerd — get yourself eLAB and WhiBal cards.
And if you don’t see much sense in this — just set the color temperature to 5600K and, most likely, the result will also satisfy you.
