D70 and the color red....

[huntrbll]

A friend who recently purchased a D70 told me he is having trouble

capturing detail or texture when photographing something red. Dark

reds are not a problem, and neither are lighter shades and pinks. But

"pure" red as I call it..."firecracker red" is his

description...images do not yield detail. Admittedly his experience

with photo editing programs is very limited, but he did spend years

shooting B&W in 35mm, medium format and 4x5, so he is an experienced

photographeer. Has anyone else noticed this problem or have a solution?

[ken_hassman]

Hi Bill,

I have had a D70 for about a month now, it does take a while to learn the ins and outs. I have posted a pic I took last weekend up at Lake Tahoe. This is not being posted for it's photographic merits (although the depth of field is really great, the skis were right next to me) but for the red. They came out pretty dang red. Maybe the exposure compensation is set to underexpose. It took me quite a while to figure this out when I was having problems. I took some shots in RAW mode today, unfortunately I already deleted them, and some were red reds and red as can be. I made certain my exposure compensation was set to 0.

Ken<div></div>

[scott_warn]

I have found the same behavior with my D70. For some reason the JPG compression throws out all of the detail information for red. Roses are a perfect subject for demonstrating this because it is so repeatable. At this time, the only answer for this issue is to use the RAW mode.

 

Some time in the future I expect that Nikon may take enough heat over this that they will write some new compression software and introduce it in a firmware upgrade. It is one major advantages to the electronic nature of a digital, a lot of bugs can be fixed with software downloaded over the net. I won't beat up on Nikon too much over this issue, I would just like the address of the programmer so I could send him some roses. It is pretty obvious that the programmer never saw a red rose since he assumed that reds didn't contain detail. Tell your friend to take a few comparison shots between RAW and JPG, you both will be shocked by the difference in detail.

[brettjohnson]

There was another thread on this issue with examples by some knowledgeable folks who suggested that we all start to send red roses to the Nikon Designers - and maybe they will get the message.

 

But anyway, as suggested the problem is with the RAW to JPG engine in the D70 - Use RAW many problems disappear.

[aardvarko]

Look, the solution is very simple. Set the D70's color mode to Mode 2 (Adobe RGB) and open the resultant images in Photoshop CS.

 

(Or, use Nikon View to transfer them, and tell it to embed the Adobe RGB profiles in the files; then read it with earlier Photoshop versions or another ICC-compliant application.)

 

Adobe RGB is a "wider" colorspace; it supports more vibrant colors than the default, sRGB.

[Karim Ghantous]

What I find incredible is that engineers spend years designing better CCDs, then photographers spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars on DSLRs only to shoot in JPEG mode.

 

Perhaps this is why so many photographers think that digital cameras are a rip-off. Comparing JPEGs to film is definitely not a fair comparison.

[scott_eaton]

JPEG is not the problem. I shoot primarily with JPEG and rarely if ever shoot in RAW mode with my 10D. I'd bet money you couldn't tell the difference, and I shoot extremely demanding subjects in terms of color intensity.

 

The culprit is sRGB vs Adobe. Using Adobe color space will likely solve the problem.

[vivek iyer]

Another vote for Adobe RGB. No problems with JPEGs, once I learnt to use the proper settings. No problems with any shades of red either.

 

If you practice to use all the features of the camera, thereis no need for RAW or PS post processing. One can infact get what they see on the TFT and on the print as well.

 

Vivek.

[AntonioC]

Shoot in raw (NEF), then open your image in Capture.

Under the "advanced raw" tab, switch between sRGB and Adobe 1998 RGB, you'll see the lost details in the reds re-appear.

 

 

Cheers

[lisa_thomas]

Shooting in Raw does not help. Nikon needs to address this issue period!!!

[aardvarko]

Lisa, switch your camera into Adobe RGB colorspace. If you can't figure out how to do that, don't blame Nikon.

[lisa_thomas]

Chris, I have shot in RGB ......There is no difference in detail. Tested all my lenses 80-200 f2.8, 105 macro, 17-35. Several people have talked about the same problem with the reds so Nikon should check the problem don't you think? Do you work for Nikon? I guess I don't know who else to blame.

 

 

Lee

[aardvarko]

It's called *ADOBE* RGB. It is Mode 2 in your Optimize Image->Custom->Color Mode menu on the D70. If it doesn't look much different in your editor, you are using an editor that doesn't know how to use ICC or EXIF 2.1. Please read my above post with guidelines for using Adobe RGB, particularly concerning Photoshop.

 

And of course I don't work for Nikon. I'm a photojournalism student that actually read his manual!

[vivek iyer]

Reading the D-70 manual would help (page 59 of the manual)!

 

There are 3 color modes that you can choose from.

 

The second one is the "Adobe RGB" different than the

other two.

 

I do not know if I would call a person who is helpful as a Nikon

"agent"!

 

Vivek.

[art_kramer]

how red is red? heres a shot from my D70 at factory settings. is it too red? how do you know??<div></div>

[vincent_broderick]

I have also encountered problems with shooting reds,particularly in sRGB (jpegs)-red are so vivid they look as though they have been pasted on!!I sent camera back to Nikon service who after 6 weeks told me there was nothing wrong with it but they have changed the software.Unfotunately I cannot comment on the new software as I was given a new camera by the dealer when the original one couldnt be found!!!!I will buy some red roses tomorrow and see how the new camera performs...Wish me luck!