40D: Weird colours

[yakim_peled1]

Is it needless to say that the preset WB settings also did not work?

 

Happy shooting, Yakim.

[yakim_peled1]

If that helps, the original WB is somewhere close to 4700K.

 

Happy shooting,

Yakim.

[peter_langfelder]

Hi Yakim, I would check that all settings in your converter actually are what you think they are - these (all) look like duotone conversions to me...

[phule]

The clouds and birds are in silhouette. I don't think changing the WB values are going to do anything for you. This is an exposure issue, not a WB issue, IMHO.

[yakim_peled1]

Peter, which settings are you referring to?

 

Rob, I don't get it. If I change the exposure then all I do is to make the picture lighter or darker. This has no effect on colour.

 

Happy shooting,

Yakim.

[yakim_peled1]

Forgot to add (if it matters), it is DPP v. 3.4.1.1.

 

Happy shooting,

Yakim.

[jason_hall5]

I think I am going to find a similar scene and try to reproduce it. Some how I think there is a combination of things at work here. Like the others and yourself, I liked the first image, but the WB= 2500 and 3500 are just Awsome.

 

Jason

[mark_brown13]

I think that's an awsome image. I'd go with 5500, I like how dramatic it feels. I'd be very interested in knowing how the effect occured. I only recently bought a 40D which is what drew me into this thread and I can honestly say it inspires me to go out and try it myself.

 

I'm far from being an expert but, as a guess it seems like the colours are off because the camera metered too much off the sun and most of the image is underexposed as a result giving some very dark tones, though to wonderful effect. Am I right in thinking those brown edges on the clouds would be more orange/yellow if it was exposed more? Along with a lighter blue sky would that be more like what you saw with your own eyes?

[evphotography]

I'm not really sure what happened here, it does look like a duotone as one person aslo pointed out. One suggestion I have is to take your camera off of AWB, especially if you are shooting sunsets, last light of the day or first light. I set my camera to daylight white balance, which is what film would capture it as so that you capture the true colors that are going on. AWB will always try to make your image neutral in color and will remove the warm light you are trying to get. Now if I am shooting on a overcast days or in forest where I want natural colors then I use cloudy setting or AWB will work usally pretty well in those conditions. You can always change it in the RAW converter.

[wayne_campbell]

Halloween is fast approaching. You have captured the perfect spooky clouds-over-the-moon picture (even though it's the sun, I won't tell

anyone). Just relax and go with the flow.

[phule]

[[Rob, I don't get it. If I change the exposure then all I do is to make the picture lighter or darker. This has no effect on colour. ]]

 

This is clearly wrong, as your second example "Regular sunset colours" proves.

[mdc002]

Looks like the shot was taken with the camera set to monotone.

[yakim_peled1]

Eric, from now on I will sure take the camera off the AWB when shooting sunsets. You see, I always shot in AWB thinking: "I could always change it later in DPP if I wish". Thing is, I was proven wrong. It worked well to date but suddenly it got completely wicked.

 

Rob, I apologize for my thickness but I clearly :-) don't understand. Please be as detailed as possible.

 

Happy shooting,

Yakim.

[rainer_t]

Yakim, since I don't know how the original colors were, it's a bit hard to tell ... but for me, the truth must

have been somewhere between 5500K and 7500K ... eventually a bit "tint" (is that "Color tone" in DPP?) needs to

be applied. Just don't forget,

that the sun itself was likely overexposed (despite the -1 EV correcture used for the picture) and will therefore

not go back to the original colors (at least not without further manual work on it). But the clouds look good for

me in the range of 5500K to 7500K.

[yakim_peled1]

1. I wrote in the OP: "It was an ordinary sunset, light blue sky, white clouds, yellow sun". These were the original

colours.

 

2. I tried playing with both exposure and WB. Noting could restore the original colours. One may be able to

achieve this with extensive PS work but that is not the point. The point is that - from a pure technical PoV - the

camera simply screwed up. BTW, that same thing happened when I did a bit of macro. When I got close, I got this

pic (which I nicked: "The alien"). Very cold colours. Other shots of the same bug but when it was smaller in the

frame, had much warmer and true to reality.

 

 

Happy shooting,

Yakim.<div></div>

[peter_rowe]

Yakim,

I think this is an exposure issue. Evaluative metering places great emphasis on the chosen AF point. For example, if you place your camera on a tripod pointed at a scene that is light on the left and dark on the right (shade and sunlight) and then take two photos exactly the same but using the left AF point in the light area, and take the next shot with the right AF point in a dark area, you will find the the 2 photos are completely different in exposure. In your shot you are probably using the centre AF point which is placed directly on the sun. This will cause the camera to try and correctly expose for the sun - which it did. But, with such a dynamic range from the sun to other areas in the photo you basically ended up with a very low saturated shot - it is almost monochrome. Since white balance is simply an RGB offset applied to each pixel from a reference and monochrome is where each of RGB are the same value for each pixel it is simply going to color the entire picture cool and warm (blue to orange) as you see when you change the WB.

[kira_greene]

I cannot help to answer the questions posted, but I felt compelled to say I really like the image, the original one (that

sparked the thread) is really cool, and I really really like the WB 5500 and WB 7500.

It helps that the photo itself is spectacular!

[martinc]

Id be interested in seeing a screen crop from DPP Tool Palette. Ideally both the RAW tab and the RGB tab with all of the controls reset to as shot.

 

There are a lot of parameters to tweak the image with. Im also thinking this must have been a very very contrasty image maybe way outside of the camera's ability to capture it. Bright sunlight and silhoutes dont get processed too well. Have you tried the tune dial next to the white balance control you can ever more bizarre effects with that too.

 

M

[phule]

[[Rob, I apologize for my thickness but I clearly :-) don't understand. Please be as detailed as possible. ]]

 

Peter Rowe pretty much said what I was going to write. You have pointed your camera at the sun and it exposed for it. This is not a white balance issue, this is an exposure issue.

[yakim_peled1]

Peter, I understood the first part and think you may indeed onto the core problem (me….). Nevertheless, your last sentence got me baffled. Could you explain it in simpler words?

 

 

Happy shooting,

Yakim.<div></div>

[yakim_peled1]

Martin, here is the RAW tab.

 

 

Happy shooting,

Yakim.<div></div>

[yakim_peled1]

And here is the RGB tab.

 

 

Happy shooting,

Yakim.<div></div>

[yakim_peled1]

Well, it's exposure issue? Then what about the grasshopper? I took two pictures at one minute interval. This is the one with the normal colours.

 

 

Happy shooting,

Yakim.<div></div>

[yakim_peled1]

This is the one with the weird colours.

 

 

Happy shooting,

Yakim.<div></div>

[phule]

[[Very cold colours. Other shots of the same bug but when it was smaller in the frame, had much warmer and true to reality]]

 

I find it difficult to believe, Yakim, that you can't see the difference between your two grasshopper shots.

 

The second one shows the grasshopper in shadow and the first one shows the grasshopper casting his (or her) own shadow, clearly being lit by an external light source (the sun?).