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Photography Question 

Ronnie G. Rutledge
 

Blue water?


 
  Lake Piru
Lake Piru
Blue water

Ronnie G. Rutledge

 
  Lake Piru
Lake Piru
Green water

Ronnie G. Rutledge

 
 
I am new to "photography" although I have owned a digital camera for 3years and have just bought my second, a Sony CD400. I have only taken photographs where I just pointed and shot, most came out ok, but now I've started taking scenery shots where there is water involved. When I take pictures of a lake, in one shot the water is blue, in the next almost identical shot, the water is green, even when the sky is blue. What do I need to do to get blue water? Please advise, Thanks.


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August 24, 2002

 

John A. Lind
  Ronnie,
The second looks a little weak in the blue, and would likely look more like the first one by subtracting a little red and green (if dealing with RGB; yellow if dealing with CMY).

To my eye, the sky does look different between the two even though it's still mostly blue and the water in the first one has some green in it.

Do you have some form of automatic color balancing turned on in the camera? If so, try turning it off. You may want to experiment using different settings if there are any.

BTW, blue-green is a very natural color for water and it is rarely pure blue unless its surface is heavily reflecting a very dark blue sky. Same applies to sky near the horizon. It can often look slightly cyan.

If you canot adjust how your camera does its color balancing, then you will need to do this after you download the photograph to your computer using software that can adjust the color balance.

-- John


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August 25, 2002

 

Ronnie G. Rutledge
  Thanks John, I'll play around with the settings in the camera, I've been using it mostly in full auto mode. ..Ronnie


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August 25, 2002

 
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