With my analyzer the only time you need a grey image is for programming.
Even then it's possible to use the settings from a perfect print to do the
programming. Once it's programmed you don't need to find a grey. You can set
any of the 100 channels to various things. I guess blue sky. Skin tone.
White dress. Or just an overall setting. Whatever you feel like. It's
possible to even set some of the channels for B&W.

     Having said that my analyzer isn't working at the moment and I haven't
had the incentive to get the probe fixed or to replace it. I know I will
sooner then later but that's becuase it'll speed things up not because I
think it'll improve things. I find doing test strips for colour printing
much more of a hassle then with B&W. OTOH I don't mind screwing around with
the colour settings. I find that interesting.

   Nick

Mike,

  Your analyzer is a single channel one.  It'll do the job but it's less
convienent.

   What you would need to do is produce a standard negative.  That is a
negative (or positive) of the film or films you use that contain a 18% gray
card, standard color patches (like the MacBeth or from some other source
like an old Kodak Color Dataguide) and an average skin tone and they must be
properly exposed.  My wife holding a MacBeth Color Chart with an 18% gray
under her chin and a protracted gray scale from Kodak serves my purpose.
This film should be processed following your standard methods (same lab or
same chemistry/time/temp/etc. if you do it your self).

  Now, what you do is print this standard negative perfectly.  After you've
got it just right, record the setting of your filtration/exposure and don't
move anything.  Analyze the color you wish to match in an unknown print.
Zero the filterpack, swap the negatives around and analyze the unknown.
This process will work for this processing session and film type.  The next
time you need to go to work or you change film type (say from Kodak 160NC to
Fuji NPC), again, print the standard negative for the film type you're using
with the recorded filtration and exposure as a starting point and follow the
same process.  This will compensate for differences in technique or
paper/chemistry aging since the last session.  It may only be a unit or two
of filtration off, but that will apply to all your subsequent prints if you
don't reset your technique to zero.

  The 18% gray card comes in handy for two processes.  The first is if
you're using the same lighting condition for an entire roll (or rolls) of
film.  For example a bunch of studio work or TTL flash work in the same
ambient lighting.  If you follow the practice of shooting an 18% card in the
first frame under these conditions, then print your standard negative,
analyze the 18%, swap in that frame with the 18% and dial-in the necessary
filtration and exposure.  You don't need to move anything on the enlarge for
the remaining prints.  They will all print correctly with the same
filtration (or at least should).

  A second method for the 18% is when you have a difficult negative without
one of your standard colors.  Get your analyzer set for 18%, then swap in
your unknown negative.  Compose your image and place a diffuser under the
lens.  This will mix all the color and theoretically come to an 18% gray
value.  It works about 60% of the time, but will get you fairly close the
rest of the times.

  Single channel analyzers are not difficult to work with, they just
require different procedures.  Hope this info has been of help.

Jim