is there any digital cmera capable of replicating purple?

<p>Hi all, I am completely frustrated by both of my cameras i own (Nikon D50 and canon A540) inability to replicate purple. every time I shoot somemthing purple it comes out blue....I have no patience to try to correct it in photoshop...is this an issue with all digital cameras? Will shooting film correct the situation? does anyone own a digital camera that replicated purple in-camera? help!</p>

<p>Are you using auto white balance?</p>

 

<p>As above, are you setting the white balance? Also, are you evaluating the color only on the screen of the camera or are you using a color calibrated monitor? I remember photographing a painting with my first digital SLR and going nuts because a shade of purple looked terrible on the camera screen no matter what I tried with lighting, etc., only to discover that the color looked fine on my computer monitor. </p>

<p>Some purples will be out of gamut to some printers and colorspaces but if you get your white balance right as mentioned above you should be able to at least capture it closely.</p>

<p>Your Canon A540 is known to have highly saturated color and could cause your purples to look blue. <br />www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/A540/A540A5.HTM<br /> I can't speak for the Nikon</p>

<p>My experience with purple is that it sometimes looks more correct on a print than the screen, so you should compare the print output to the original to evaluate properly. Otherwise, all digital imaging devices notoriously struggle with purple, which I assume is why printers perhaps by default try compensating for this.<br>

Otherwise, there is someone making a Photoshop plugin that purportedly corrects missing purples: http://www.fullspectrumrgb.com/</p>

No consumer camera or film that I know of has the same spectral response that your eyes do. Purple is notorious for demonstrating this. With appropriate calibration, you can compensate, but the compensation is really only valid under limited conditions.

<p>From an internet source "that must not be named":</p>

<blockquote>

<p align="left">Reds are easy to get with digital cameras, so long as you watch the exposure and aren't too picky about how red you want your reds.</p>

<p align="left">Purple and violet are another story.</p>

<p align="left">I'm a big fan of yellow, orange and red, and they're easy on digital.</p>

<p align="left">Thank goodness I don't do purple, since it never looks right in digital (or film).</p>

<p align="left">If you're a purple and violet kind of shooter, check out <a href="http://www.fullspectrumrgb.com/" target="_blank">Tribeca labs</a> for some software which claims to make real violets and purples out of what you get with digital cameras. I've seen this software work great in demos, but have never tried it myself since I don't work with violet, fuchsia or purple.</p>

<p align="left">I'm serious: I work with warm and cool and sometimes green; magentas and pinks aren't my thing.</p>

</blockquote>

<p align="left">If you really want to know... it's <em><strong><a href="http://www.kenrockwell.com/">him</a> </strong> </em> .</p>

<p>I just did a wedding with a Nikon D300 - Flowers - Purple...Bridesmaids Dresses and tuxedo vests - lavender... Came out fine...</p>

<p>Dave</p>

 

<p>There is an on-going No Words thread on purple (<a href="../no-words-forum/00UJ0B">link</a> ). I thought most of them looked pretty purple.</p>

<p>Are you sure <em>your</em> monitor is properly set up?</p>

<p>By the way, the quotation on colors from the "source that shall not be named" is a good example of why many people find it hard to take him seriously.</p>

<p>I have to underexpose my shots using the EV adjustment. It seems wierd to me that a sophisticated machine like a digital camera would have an uneven response to color, but it appears to be the case. My Nikon burns out magenta before the other colors, so that a purple flower shifts to blue because the magenta portion of the spectrum is overexposed and turning white before the other colors that mix to make purple. Of course this is an armchair analysis, but it explains the results I get.</p>

<p>EV adjustment isn't selective, but it is the only way I have to pull down the exposure to stop the camera before it blows out magenta. I then adjust brightness and contrast in post processing to recreate the original brilliance the image should have. Sometime I have to adjust more than -1 EV. I have learned to recognize magenta burnout in the LCD when I see it - artificial bright white color and lack of detail - so I can tell when I have to do this.</p>

<p>My purples and violets do not look blue when shooting Canon S-series, G-series, or EOS-series cameras. Heck, even my camera phone's purples don't look blue.</p>

<p>http://www.photo.net/photo/9699373</p>

<p>For the above photo, I used a $5 gray card to set the white balance and exposure. Try doing the same, and of course double-check that your monitor is properly calibrated.</p>

<p>Albert makes a good point. Check each channel and make sure that you aren't clipping highlights. And set a custom white balance.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

<p>I had a <a href="../pentax-camera-forum/00UGMM">recent problem with this</a> , but often purples come out fine. I believe in this case the flash (which was necessary due to otherwise insufficient lighting) and reflective subject greatly exacerbated the situation. It is my understanding that some film emulsions may have had similar issues.</p>

<p>Until a couple of weeks ago, I would have been among those who thought "my camera doesn't have this problem"...but I found a subject where it would. Purples <em>can </em> be tricky at times.</p>

<p>Depends on the camera and the light. Each model tests slightly differently when tested using Imatest or other methods. You can compare results on equipment review sites that test color accuracy.<br>

http://www.photo.net/digital-camera-forum/00R398</p>