Not bright colors in my photo, please help.

[hrishikesh_keshavan]

This photo was taken using a Canon Elan 7e with Fuji Superia 400

speed film. It was developed at snapfish.com. This photo even though

I feel has proper exposure I want, lacks bright colors. The greens

are so pale which was not the case when I saw it. This photo has not

been modified digitally. Could you please let me know where am I

going wrong. Is it the film, the place I develop "snapfish.com". I

would greatly appreciate your help.<div></div>

[walt_donovan]

Looks to me like the shot has too much contrast to show saturated colors in the sunlit plants and detail in the darker shadows. The print machine probable picked up on that. It has a computer for a brain and does its best to guess at what you're trying to show. You could probably reprint darker and punch up the saturation in the sunlit areas, but you're going to lose the shadows. Best cure would be to reshoot on a cloudy day, bringing the contrast range down well within the range of the film. Best advice I could give though is don't publish photos of your pot plants on the web. (LOL if you didn't know)

[kipling]

This would just be a guess so I don't know if it will help but it kind of looks like

the sun is shining toward the camera, I don't know if the shade on the right

hand side actually reached where you were standing and if not, it could be

lens flare from the bright sun causing this washed out look. Just a guess.

[jennifer_c]

WALT!! These aren't pot plants. These actually look like small trees. Pot plant leaves have five fingers and these are single oval leaves attached to the stalk!!

[steve_levine]

Most times disatisifaction with prints,is a lab issue.

[brendan_turner1]

Hrishikesh,

Perhaps you should stick to biomedical engineering ; )

 

1. You use Fuji film because you hear that it has good saturation in the

green-blue range of the spectrum right? Well not always. In consumer

grade films like Superia, this isn't really the case. Try slide or "chrome"

films like Fujichrome Velvia if you want saturation, or in print film, use

Kodak Portra ___ASA "US" (Ultra Saturation) Or Fuji NPS 200 asa, or

just ask someone at a camera store to point you in the right direction

(ONLY larger camera stores will stock the above films...it really is worth

a trip) These films must also be refrigerated to prevent deterioration over

longer periods of time.

 

If this is for presentation purposes..use slide film. Slides ALWAYS have

more "punch" and the colours look amazing on a light table.

 

2. Get a POLARIZING filter. And use it all the time, esp if you are

taking shots of plants and the like. Make sure it is a CIRCULAR

polarizer if you have autofocus. Then, when you take a snap, turn the filter

around untill you see the most saturation. (The filter will reduce reflected

light at certain polarities, thus leaving you with the plant and not the

glare from the sun)

 

3. Try using a light meter. Your camera may be using some sort of

"matrix" metering that is compensating for shadows and other parts of

the image that you don't want. Use an incident light meter to get it right

where you want it right. OR use the camera's "spot" or "centre-weighted"

metering modes to zero in on what you wan to expose properly.

 

4. People in other cities who you don't know don't give a s#&t how

your photos turn out. People around the corner do. A non franchise lab

that is near you wants your business, they will do a good job for you to

get it. Go to them. Whatver this online lab thing is will go out of

business as soon as people realise it's a massive sham.

 

5. Photoshop it.

[EricM]

Jennifer, how do you know what pot plants look like? :-)

[discpad]

Brendan has it right: Use a good E6 (slide) film, since color

saturation is lost when the film is printed to paper. To make

matters worse, the C41 process is generally balanced more

towards flesh tones. As a footnote, the 6 color inkjet photo

printers (Epson, HP, Canon) also do this with light cyan and light

magenta added to the CMYK palette to make it a CcMmYK

palette. If saturation were an issue, they would use a bright

green and bright red-orange, like what the Roland poster inkjet

printers use.<br><br>

[incidentally, I shoot NASCAR and Indy Racing League, where

the colors are very saturated.] <br><br>

If you want to shoot a well-balanced outdoor film then Kodak

E100G, Agfa RSX-II 100, or Fuji Provia 100 (or the less expensive

Sensia 100) are good choices. If you really want a film with heavy

saturation, then Kodak E100VS will deliver in the greens. Fuji

Velvia 50 has excellent "punch" in the reds, as good as

Kodachrome 64. However, for foliage, steer clear of the new

Velvia 100, since it has a tendency to turn greens

brownish.<br><br>

There's one hitch with shooting chromes (slides): You need to

get the exposure a lot closer -- <i> like how you need to shoot

with digital </i> -- because if you're one stop overexposed, you'll

blow out the highlights. If you're shooting for scanning, as

opposed to projection, then it's better to be 1-1/2 stops

underexposed than a half stop overexposed, as you can "dig out"

the shadow detail with a longer exposure in the scanner.

<br><br>

If you shoot slides (which I recommend for this type of shot), then

bracket the exposure with three or four shots (-1, -1/2, 0, +1/2):

You'll have 3 or 4 nice images in your hands, then pick the best

one of the group.<br><br>

 

Cheers! <br>

Dan Schwartz <br>

Cherry Hill, NJ <br>

<a href = "http://users.snip.net/~joe"> Click here </a> to visit my

home page

<br>

[ofey_kalakar]

Dan for slide film it may be better to bracket by ± 1/3 stop increments, as slide films

tend to have a shallower exposure latitude. As for print negatives, they do have a

wider exposure latitude and would be able to handle a ± 1/2 to 1 stop

increments. From what I can see from my computer screen the image does look over

exposed and as suggested earlier may be due to a combination of flare and or

metering. One other solution may be to use a balanced fill flash. But a very good

solution as also suggested is to shoot such scenes under overcast lighting.

Hrishikesh, Is this a scan of the print or is this a scan of the negative?

[ofey_kalakar]

Dan for slide film it may be better to bracket by ± 1/3 stop increments, as slide films

tend to have a shallower exposure latitude. As for print negatives, they do have a

wider exposure latitude and would be able to handle a ± 1/2 to 1 stop

increments. From what I can see from my computer screen the image does look over

exposed and as suggested earlier may be due to a combination of flare and or

metering. One other solution may be to use a balanced fill flash. But a very good

solution as also suggested is to shoot such scenes under overcast lighting. A final

suggestion may be to incorporate an intensifying filter or as suggested earlier a

polarizer.

Hrishikesh, Is this a scan of the print or is this a scan of the negative?

[hrishikesh_keshavan]

This is a scan snapfish.com provides for their customers. I think the problem is not with just this photograph. It is the case with most of my photographs. As you guys can see, the below photograph was taken on a sunny day with a circular polariser. It think there might be some flares. The sun was to my right. Even here the colors are not bright as i normally see on the website. Not sure where the problem might be. My problem could be snapfish.com. Well, I am switching to slide film. The transistion is slow. Thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge. I am not sure whether you guys can see the attachment.<div></div>

[NullMcNullkins]

The last photo looks like they added some free dust to your picture, not flare. However, for the colors, it looks like they're printing them magenta/red, instead of a more green/cyan. If they added some cyan, and took out some magenta, and possibly darkened the photo, it'd probably be closer to what you want.

 

If you want brighter colors with Fuji film, take it to a lab that has a Fuji Frontier processor. If all of your shots are of plants and such, ask to speak to the operator, and let them know that you're looking for in your prints.

[peter_martucci]

Hi...first of all I would certainly reprint them yourself...it's amazing how terrible the

labs can make your negatives look.

 

Also, I would recommend dropping the Fuji film if you don't like a film tendency

towards blues and greens. Try something with a little more color saturation...if you

want outlandish color, try Agfa Ultra film..it's got ridiculous color saturation and

really pops grass and sky. Check out this photo with the Ultra...no digital

manipulation...only a graduated haze filter and flash.<div></div>

[bokeh man1]

What a dreadful picture (the one on agfa film). It reminds me of a picture a doctor sent me taken with his new Leica. He said can you tell its been taken with a Leica lens and I told him I can teld it was taken by an unskilled photographer. Sorry! Now on to the crux of the matter. Dont change film this will only add to your confusion. Get a gray card (a white sheet of paper will do). Put it in the sunny part of the scene and spot meter off it, then in the shadow part of the scene and spot meter off it. Normal photo paper allows approx 3 stops maximum between the 2 spot readings. Anything more and you will lose saturation, highlight or shadow detail. I'm in Europe and have never experienced a bad lab ever. I think a lot of useless photographers in the States like to blame their lab. Well I must say this is a brillant get out if your photos are useless. Here we say bad workmen blame their tools!

[phule]

I'm a little confused by your post and followup post, Hrishikesh.

 

Did you scan the prints or did snapfish scan the negative for you and provide some sort of PhotoCD? Do the prints look like the images you've posted or are you just concerned about the scans?

 

It looks like these could be cleaned up rather easily in Photoshop.