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White Target

 
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IMPORTANT: Sales of TARGETS are suspended. The status will be reviewed in 2013.
We are sorry for any disagreement this may cause!

 

A great tool
to White-Balance
your pictures!

 

Applications

Application Notes

Recommended by...

Features / Specs

Target FAQs

Price info ($)

Buy now!

 

 

The BabelColor White-Balance target is made with the best solid white reference material you can find: sintered PTFE. PTFE is an acronym for polytetrafluoroethylene, a fluoropolymer better known as Teflon, a DuPont trademark. Sintered PTFE, obtained with an exacting and time-consuming manufacturing process, exhibits the highest and most constant diffuse reflectance in the visible spectrum. Its diffusing properties are highly Lambertian, which means that the apparent target brightness essentially remains the same for all viewing angles. This material is typically used in high-end light measuring instruments and accessories, such as integrating spheres.

Sintered PTFE reflectance characteristics are very different from those of PTFE slabs and rods available from plastic suppliers, which are essentially useless for white reference purposes. The characteristics of sintered PTFE are in fact so unlike those of standard PTFE that some manufacturers use a trade name for the resulting product; for instance, Spectralon, a registered trademark of Labsphere Inc., is such a material. The manufacturing process of Labsphere's Spectralon is a trade secret, and so is the BabelColor white target manufacturing process; however, the resulting materials have very similar properties in terms of reflectance, resistance to heat and chemicals, etc. Where you will find a major difference though is in the price (purchasing info); the BabelColor white target is about one-third (1/3) the price of the competition (i.e. 66% savings)!

White target questions? See our FAQ.


Applications

  • Ideal as a reference for “RAW” file calibration, as shown on the right. Top image: RAW image as opened (camera set with manual Tungsten White Balance). Middle image: White Balance obtained by clicking on the target. Bottom image: exposure corrected by monitoring the target white.
     

  • Include the target in test
    pictures to balance your
    white in digital images
    (not just RAW !;
    see our Target FAQ)
     
  • With no white whiter, use
    it to prevent overexposure
     
  • Check your spectrometer
    or colorimeter calibration
     
  • Convenient “absolute”
    reference for scientific work

 
Application Notes

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Recommended by...

Derek Cooper explains how to use the
BabelColor White Target for art reproduction in
Tips 135 to 138 (Chapter 10) of Andrew Darlow's book:
301 Inkjet Tips and Techniques.

The use of the BabelColor White Target in architectural lighting is discussed by Pierre-Felix Breton
in Chapter 6 of this book:
3ds Max 2010 Architectural Visualization -
 Advanced to Expert
.

Here are extracts from a recent discussion in one of The Luminous Landscape forums:

The WB picker should be spot on, but not all gray cards are all that gray. The 2 mentioned above are relatively
good (WhiBal), and exceptionally good (the Babelcolor White target).

Bart van der Wolf

I used a foam cup quite some times. It, for sure can give very good results, for me at least, often better than most other devices and cards. But I would like to add once more, how impressed I am by the BabelColor white target. That's another league all together. I had no color issues in post production. One click.
Nino Loss

Here is an extract from a post by Andrew Rodney (The Digital Dog), the author of
Color Management for Photographers, in the Digital Grin forum:

(...) First thing, don't WB on gray! Try a non specular white. Half of all the data in a Raw linear capture is in the first stop of highlight. What converter are you using?

Next, a "proper" WB may not produce an ideal color appearance! I often WB in Lightroom and ACR, then tweak the tint/temp sliders a tad as I usually find the results a bit too cool for my tastes. Also, if you have the proper WB target, that can help as something that's not spectrally neutral will affect the WB. Something like this:
http://www.babelcolor.com/main_level/White_Target.htm (...)

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Features / Specifications

  • Nominal Target size: 1.18 inch (30 mm) diameter; 0.355 inch (9 mm) thickness
  • L*a*b* (D50): 99.5 / -0.08 / -0.40 (Typical; see note)
  • RGB: (253, 254, 254). These numbers are representative of many common RGB spaces such as Adobe (1998), ProPhoto, and sRGB.
  • Stable reflectance under various lights and over time
  • Highly diffused (non-specular, i.e. non-reflective) surface
  • Waterproof
  • Thermally stable
  • Not fluorescent
  • Shipped in a protective phenolic case with a transparent cap

Three specific advantages of this target are:

  • A reflectance of 99% ±1% over the visible spectrum. This translates to a Lightness value, the L* of the L*a*b* notation, of 99.5, and RGB values around 254 for many common RGB spaces. In comparison, many white targets for photography, sold individually or part of a multi-colored set, display a maximum reflectance of about 96% (that would not even be visible in the following graph!), with a L* value of 96 and RGB coordinates around 243.

  • A very neutral appearance, i.e. without a perceived tint. Its a* and b* values, the color components of the L*a*b* notation, are well below one (-1 or +1), which translates into nearly identical R, G, and B values.
  • The L*a*b* and RGB coordinates remain essentially the same for a wide array of white illuminants (A, C, D50, D55, D65, F3, F11, etc.); this target thus exhibits almost no metamerism effect, i.e. no change in perceived white (Note: the exact technical term for a change in a single perceived color with various illuminants is Color Inconstancy, which is very low in this case).

These characteristics make this target a valued tool whenever color accuracy is essential.

Note: Measurements done with a spectrophotometer, 45°/0° geometry, Illuminant D50, 2 degree Standard Observer. The L*a*b* and reflectance values of your target may differ from the typical values (Back to Features).

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Purchasing info

IMPORTANT: Sales of TARGETS are suspended. The status will be reviewed in 2013.
We are sorry for any disagreement this may cause!

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Last modification : 01 avril 2013