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Category: Problems with Images

Photography Question 

Marsha S. Smith 		 

Anyone have trouble shooting blues and purples?


 
 
Sometimes when I am trying to shoot something that is purple outdoors it looks blue. I am posting 2 images. Same flower, same day. The purple flower is the color it should be, but to get this I had to adjust the white balance-note the greenery is now distorted. The blue flower is with camera settings at normal. The greenery looks great, but the flower is NOT supposed to be blue. What gives?


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March 28, 2005

 

Marsha S. Smith 		 
 
 
I am posting the shots now.


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March 28, 2005

 

Andrew Laverghetta 		  The only thing that I can think of is that the petals actually have both colors in them. Maybe similar to the paint on some tricked out cars where you can see purple, green, and such from different angles? Hmm, interesting though. Try just going crazy taking pictures from different angles, maybe take a picture at night with a flash? Maybe have somebody hold a flashlight on it from a different angle? You could try to use photoshop and select only the petals with the magnetic lasso tool and only work with the petals so the rest doesn't get blown out. Or, I'm not sure but you might be able to use the history brush to change the rest of the picture back to it's previous state/color? Hope this helps!


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March 28, 2005

 

Marsha S. Smith 		  Thanks, Andrew. You might have something there about both colors being there. I can remember last year having this problem on some days and on others the color was right and I think whether it was overcast or bright sunny made the difference like maybe not enough light or the wrong kind of light had something to do with it. Certainly worth experimenting.


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March 29, 2005

 

Jennifer L. Bales 		  Bryan Peterson's "Understanding Exposure" class (which, by the way I hightly recommend to anyone) addresses this exact issue. He says that purple is a difficult color to capture. Try his idea... take the palm of your hand, put it in the same lighting conditions as your plant... meter the light off the palm of your hand, and then increase the exposure by +2/3 or +1 stop. Then focus back on the flower without changing the meter reading and take the shot. It should make the colors perfect! Sounds weird, but it is true that it works.

Jen


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March 30, 2005

 

Andrew Laverghetta 		  Oh yeah, that does sleem like it would work. I guess it must be making sure that camera has something around 18% gray to read off of. In that case, if you have really light skin, check out 18% gray cards. I've been meaning to get one myself but haven't found the time or have simply forgotten about it.


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March 30, 2005

 

Bob Cammarata 		  It may be something as simple as the available light hitting the flower.
Was it sunlit, or in shade?
In deep shade, more of the cooler (blue) tones tend to dominate.


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March 30, 2005

 

Marsha S. Smith 		  Thank you all for getting back to me. I have to admit that I am kind of lazy and use auto settings a lot so the whole metering thing may be out of my league.
Bob - I believe that you may be right on because I have shot them when the color was right and I believe it was bright sunshine. I think low light situations are when I am having the problem. I will shoot some more when I am paying attention to the light conditions and see if that really is the case.

Again - I appreciate all of your input.


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March 30, 2005

 
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