photography help - what's wrong with this picture?

[Guildenstern]

Hiyas! So I got some reveal bulbs to try to help out some of the issues I've been having with my pictures, as well as a couple of clamp on work lights to help direct it better.

 

I think the back drop paper Im' using is making it appear more yellow to the camera (it's a kind of ecru beige colour)

 

what can I do t o get more natural colours?

 

I'm not good at this =/ My camera is smarter than I am

 

I have a Nikon coolpix p510 - using it in macro "scene" mode

 

thanks in advance for any advise!

 

[CashWiley]

In Adobe Lightroom:

 

White balance

Rotate

Crop

 

[Chris Palmer]

You need to change the light meter setting on your camera to incandescent bulb, rather than daylight. The bulbs a are casting a yellow tinge, which CashWiley was able to correct using a photo editing program.

[Inarah]

I use Photoshop, pretty much the same commands.

 

Image > adjustments > auto color

 

I have a Nikon Coolpix and find it tends to take pictures in the red end of the spectrum, so I have to color balance and add a little blue to get true colors. 

[Doug Sundseth]

• Reveals are pretty good daylight sources, so daylight white balance is probably what you want. The image looks like you're using either shadow or cloudy white balance (or auto and your camera is being fooled).
• You're slightly underexposed. This is likely caused by using a very light background, causing your camera to think it's brighter than it really is. Use a darker background or use about a +1 - +2 stop exposure compensation.
• Note that a light beige background will probably be read as yellowish light by a camera on auto white balance. This would tend to shift the final image to blue. If you use a gray background, you might have fewer problems.
• Cash is using the same tool I normally use, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. I highly recommend it for photo work (I use it professionally). But since you have Photoshop, you probably have both Bridge and Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). Pull the image up in Bridge and press CTRL-R (or CMD-R on Mac) to open the image in ACR. You can then use the eyedropper in the first tab on a neutral (black, white, or gray) spot to set your white balance. This will give you a different result than Auto Color correction in Photoshop. If that doesn't give the right color temp, you can adjust those sliders manually.
• You can also crop and rotate in ACR. The much tighter crop that Cash used is much more effective.
• For some reason, the only way I could see the image was to copy your first post, go into BBCode mode, and open the image in a new tab. At first I didn't think you had actually included an image.

HTH

 

ETA: After some research, it looks like Reveals are cooler (bluer) than regular incandescents of the same wattage, but not really daylight balanced at all. You might well be on a daylight balance and getting the color cast that way. Reveals also have a lower Color Rendering Index (CRI) than cheap incandescents, so there's not much reason to use them for photography. This was a bit of a surprise to me, as I've used them myself and probably recommended them to others.

Edited April 16, 2016 by Doug Sundseth

[TGP]

I just bought two LED bulbs made by ecosmart. 11 watts, 1150 lumens, (A19 size 75Watt equivalent). Back of box says 5000K.

 

How do those compare with Reveals or real daylight?

[Guildenstern]

I haven't any editing software at all

 

except paint :P

 

and I just looked can't believe I don't have any incandescents left in the house bleh - will try again in the morning, also with different background

 

thanks for advice!

 

*edit again*

 

ok I found a free software Gimp to help with trying to correct the colours, hoping I can get it to where I don't need as much help! I'd rather be painting than futzing with photos lol

Edited April 16, 2016 by Guildenstern

[Kheprera]

That is news, Doug. Will be sure to leave my Reveal bulb out of pics I take, though it might be worth doing a series of tests with different backgrounds and bulb types/mixes. I'd be curious what the results would be.

 

Might need to go back to my basic photography class and run the lesson we used for shooting with different colored filters on b&w, using a white board with a red, green, blue, and yellow card attached.

 

Would be an interesting experiment at any rate.

[knarthex]

I haven't any editing software at all

 

except paint :P

 

and I just looked can't believe I don't have any incandescents left in the house bleh - will try again in the morning, also with different background

 

thanks for advice!

GIMP is a free photo editor that the local Barbarian Enabler touts...

You can down load it...

 

If you have a Hobby Lobby, Michael's, AC Moores near you, see if you can get some OTTlight bulbs. They run about $15 each around here, but with the coupons available, you can save a bit more, and if you are a vet, they give a discount .

 

Absolutely the best bulbs for painting and pic taking I have ever used. My 3 lights are 5850K, I wrote it on the lamp so I remember...

Go to Ottlite dot com and take a look at their bulbs!

 

 

Set your camera to the correct temperature as well, that is what the 5000k  TGP is talking about is.

 

George

[Doug Sundseth]

I just bought two LED bulbs made by ecosmart. 11 watts, 1150 lumens, (A19 size 75Watt equivalent). Back of box says 5000K.

 

How do those compare with Reveals or real daylight?

 

Daylight is around 6000K (varies with time of day among other things) and has a CRI of just about 100.

 

Reveals are a low CRI with a nominal color temp around 3000K.

 

Cheap incandescents are around 2600K with a CRI of close to 100.

 

Don't know what the CRI of those Ecosmarts might be, though the better LEDs are around 90.

 

 

I'll note that I edited my messages in my Photo 101 thread to mention what I just found out about Reveals. It looks like what makes them look warmer is a dropout in yellow, so colors with yellow components won't render well.

[Guildenstern]

Cool beans guys - really appreciate the help! I can't go get new bulbs yet, but funnily enough I have a couple ott lites - they're what I used before but they're very hard to direct because they're the fold up/down kind I usually use for sewing :P

 

Anyway, now I have lamps I'll just go get some new bulbs and hopefully twill all help me imrove

[knarthex]

The folding lights are what I think of as 'travel' lights for taking to paint days. ..

 

Try painting with the OTT lights, you will likely have a pleasant surprise...

[Arc 724]

I don't have the money either. SO I downloaded GiMP. I works GREAT! I've edited all my photo's on this program. 

 

 

 

http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

 

 

While in the program you go to COLORS/AUTO/WHITE BALANCE

 

I have a very basic tutorial I put together for forumnites. I'll PM you.

[CashWiley]

I used GIMP until I got Lightroom. I still use GIMP for anything beyond simple photo post-processing (like when I eventually make that portrait WIP montage..) Great program, a bit dense but free and cross-platform.

 

In addition to what Arc said about auto white balance (which isn't quite as good as Lightroom's dropper, but again...free), to crop you can use the rectangle selection tool and then Crop to Selection (I think it's in the Image menu). There's also a rotate tool that should be self-explanatory with some fooling around.

 

Interesting stuff about the Reveals, Doug. I think it's time to swap in some cheap incandescents...

[Guildenstern]

well I did go out and get two ott lites (and two work lights clamp on) total spent like $24 incl/tax (ott's were on sale due to store closing sadly) Anyway! it's certainly making stuff look better thus far. A few more years of practice and I might get some decent photos