Gelcards are Integrated Color’s grey balancing tools. They’re sturdy cards in two sizes, one to take with you, the other for studio work or wherever there’s more room to put them. They are made of what looks like a sturdy plastic and they carry a large neutral grey patch, three warmer and three colder grey tones.

I’m a big fan of ExpoDiscs, but I keep an open mind to anyone else who thinks they can do better. The Integrated Color Gelcard is a good alternative if you want to neutralise your digital camera quickly, and it has a distinct additional benefit: by shooting the target you end up with not only neutral grey, but also three warmer and three colder tones.

I measured the Gelcard for evenness of colour, and found almost no differences across the large patches. A Delta E of 0.5 is as good as perfect. However, I did find that proper lighting and proper exposure can be a challenge. Just as with other cards --the GretagMacbeth ColorChecker SG comes to mind-- you need to position the Gelcard where it catches even lighting and you need to properly expose it.

The latter is your responsibility. The former is not always under your control. For example, I found that in the evening shade, the Gelcard performed much the same as the ColorChecker SG when located outdoors in a not-so-perfect location: its colour smoothness made place for camera noise --even when the camera was set to ISO 50.

The result was that the RGB readings in Photoshop differed too much across the target to be of value. This is one example where I believe the ExpoDisc to be conceptually superior. It’s easier and faster to achieve a correctly set grey balance with the ExpoDisc than it is with any target chart that I have tested so far. The Gelcard is no exception, and that’s not because the chart is bad or flawed, but because a target chart requires a much more careful setup than holding a disc over a lens --or over a common lens hood, for that matter.

Time Savings With the Gel Card

The same applies to setting the grey balance. The ExpoDisc enables you to leave the “White Balance” setting in RAW conversion applications set to “As Shot”. This saves some additional time when compared to having to use the eye-dropper and set the grey balance afterwards in the software. On the other hand, the Gelcard will save time when you have photos that you want to make look warmer or colder. With the ExpoDisc, this means an extra trip to the White Balance tool.

When lit correctly or at least with enough evenness, the Gelcard is superior for grey balancing to the GretagMacbeth ColorChecker charts. The reason for this is that the grey patch is much larger and better suited for photography in terms of lightness.