Setting custom WB in camera - a question

[katiesmom99]

I don't have a gray card, WhiBal, expodisc, etc. I've been using a sheet of folded white copy paper for my reference. Depending on the lighting, my reference shots come out blue, orange, pink, anything but white. My shots look pretty good, but I'm just wondering if I'm not doing something correctly.

A couple of days ago my dad asked me to take some closeup shots of his badge for his retirement scrapbook. Having only the XT/kit lens combo and knowing a flash was out of the question, I moved everything outside. It was around 5:00 p.m. and I was in the shade. I set the AWB to daylight and tried a couple of shots. They were very blue, so I grabbed my paper reference and set the custome WB by it. Drastic improvement to say the least.

Anyhoots, my question is this: Does it matter what WB mode the camera is set in when you take a reference shot? I've searched quite a bit and haven't found anything addressing this.

I don't have any pics to show right now. I dumped the blue shots and the rest are on my computer at home.

[Tsmith]

I always take a reference shot in Auto White Balance although it really shouldn't matter as long as your metering on the gray card your using.

[katiesmom99]

Thanks, Bluedog. I guess I could have tried shooting my reference from all the different modes, but I would still be wondering if I were doing it wrong.

[tim]

I shoot RAW and use the white ballance dropper in CS2. Using a white piece of paper should work reliably though.

[Rene S]

I use the matte side of a white margarine container, it seems to work well.

[Mark_Cohran]

To specifically answer your question, no it doesn't matter what white balance mode you're in when you take a reference shot for a custom WB. The custom WB disregards the WB mode and instead removes the color cast from a uniform area of the photo (the paper or gray card or white card, etc.) that you shot.

Mark