Getting the Right Color?

[patricia_o.]

<p>Hi, I finally got myself a Nikon DSLR camera (D3200) and some lenses. I have the 40mm Macro f2.8 lens and have been taking nature photography. I have been having trouble with purple flowers coming out blue and red flowers either going towards pink or orange. I cannot afford Photoshop at this time (or any other software for that matter), so I'm hoping there is something I can do with my camera settings to at least get close to the natural color. I'm have a pretty good handle on aperture, shutter, ISO, etc. already, so don't be afraid to use some technical terms. If I don't understand what you mean, I'll just ask. :)</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>There is some software that is powerful and free (if you don't count your own time learning to use it)</p>

<p>Look up something called <a href="http://www.gimp.org/">GIMP</a>. I don't know what software Nikon provides with the camera these days, but Nikon does have image-processing programs available.</p>

<p>Purple is another problem: for a glance at just some of the issues see http://www.photo.net/film-and-processing-forum/00Zfh5</p>

<p>The issue is ultimately that the human eye and film and digital all have slightly different sensitivity across the spectrum. Flower colors often bring this out - perhaps because they are really trying to attract pollinators, not us. In the end, it all comes down to sex.</p>

[Bill C]

<p>Patricia, what camera settings do you use for "white balance?" If you are using "auto," this is probably the main problem. Your camera will have a hard time figuring out the proper white balance for closeups of flowers, because it doesn't know what they should look like.</p>

<p>I would suggest manually setting your white balance, using an option called "custom white balance," where you shoot a calibration shot of a white card/paper (or neutral gray card), so the camera knows exactly what to do for a neutral image.</p>

<p>The reason you need to set white balance is because the color of light can vary quite a bit, even during the daytime. (We don't notice it because our eyes are very good at adjusting.) A digital camera typically has three color sensors, red, green, and blue, and has to make a strength adjustment for each one (much like a volume control knob for colors). If you are in auto White balance, it makes a best guess at the settings, which usually works pretty well. But since your color is off, this means the camera probably made a bad guess. Therefore, you want to help the camera out by giving it a good reference, the white or gray card, then telling it to balance that to neutral (ie, custom white balance). Then, you continue to use that same setting to shoot your flowers. (Afterwards, be sure to set your camera back to "auto," or whatever you normally use, because the custom white balance you just made probably wont' be right for other scenes.)</p>

<p>As JDM points out, there are other possible reasons why certain flowers have color issues, but I would say to start with the most obvious things.</p>

[peter_e]

<p>What Bill says. Or you open you image files in the program that came with your camera and adjust white balance until the flowers look right to you. Now, unless your computer monitor is color calibrated, prints that you print at home or in a store may not exactly match what you see on your computer screen.</p>

[ljwest]

<p>Two things:</p>

 

<ol>

<li>Set the White Balance. Try (first) manually setting it using the available settings on the camera, which are probably things like sunny, cloudy, shade, tungsten, fluorescent, etc. Set it for the light that your primary subject is in. It could be a bright, sunny day, but if a cloud is passing over, set for cloudy (or wait it out...), or if it is in the shade of a tree or building, set for shade. I would try this first, before working with custom White Balance. Custom white balance is more precise, of course, but to get a feel for what your are wanting to do, and the effects, try the camera settings first.</li>

<li>Shoot in RAW (or RAW + JPEG until you can afford software), so you can make adjustments after the capture, on your Mac or PC ("in post"). When you shoot in RAW and import in RAW, the white balance can still be adjusted for the final image. You can shoot with the camera set for tungsten light (ca. 2,800 Kelvin), but adjust in post for the daylight (ca. 5,500 kelvin) you actually took the shot in.</li>

</ol>

<p>You don't need to jump in with both feet and buy Photoshop! Apple's Aperture ($79 at the Mac App Store, though it is Mac only), Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 (ca. $75 from Amazon), Adobe Lightroom 4 (ca. $135 from Amazon) are all a lot cheaper than Photoshop CS6 ($670...), and will do 95% of what most folks need to do with their photos.<br>

<br /><br /></p>

[JDMvW]

<p>Just as an aside, I can't find the actual stories, but film color tests in the photomagazines in the pre-digital days, used to have occasional stories about purple and blue flowers not coming out right on the color emulsions of the day -- so the problem is not limited to digital.</p>

[paul_de_ley]

<p>Are you looking at your photos on a Mac or PC?</p>

<p>There's all kinds of free photo editors for either OSX or Windows machines, not just Gimp which is very powerful (though not what you'd probably want start with if you're an absolute beginner) but also dozens of others. See <a href="http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pixelbasedwin/tp/freephotoedw.htm">here</a> and <a href="http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pixelbased/tp/freephotoedm.htm">here</a> for some short lists and reviews that don't even include other well regarded editors like IrfanView, Photobie, XnView or Fly Free.</p>

<p>And like JDM writes your camera comes with Nikon software (in your case ViewNX2) that will allow you to adjust color hues and white balance, among many other things.</p>

[patricia_o.]

<p>Thanks for all the responses! I would have checked sooner, but we had company. I've never used the custom white balance w/a white or gray card, so I will look into that. I will also look into some of the free software. I use a PC. Nikon does not give you any software except the viewer (ViewNX2). You can buy NX2 Capture by Nikon ($135), which seems nice in the trial I've been playing with, but I'm a beginner at photography software, so who knows if I'm even using it right, heh! </p>

[mjferron]

<p>Try shooting in the shade and using a cloudy white balance setting. It will save you the gray card hassle. Also Photoshop Elements can be picked up for as little as $79. It can do most anything you will need to do.</p>

[ljwest]

<p>There is a great article right here on photo.net by Jon Sienkiewicz about White Balance. It helped me understand it better, and gives you some exercises to try.<br>

<a href="../column/jonsienkiewicz/missing-pages-column/white-balance/">Missing Pages: White Balance</a></p>

[g dan mitchell]

<p>When it comes to color issues with flower photography, there are several issues that might be involved.</p>

<ul>

<li>Exposure - Many flowers are often strong in one of the three color channels, making it tricky for your camera to automatically meter them correctly. The camera will generally base exposure on essentially the average of the blue, green, and red channels. However, this allows one of the color channels to completely saturate, leading to color shifts and loss of highlight detail. <br /><br />Solution: A good start is to use the three-color version of the histogram display on your camera to check exposure. This allows you to see that one channel is hotter than the others. In some cases, frankly, it is necessary to "under-expose" the shot from what you and the camera might have selected. <br /><br /></li>

<li>Coloration of Ambient Light - There are a number of factors that can alter the color of the light when photographing flowers and vegetation. When shooting in shade - which is otherwise often conducive to photographing flowers - the color balance will often shift towards blue. When shooting around other vegetation, reflected light can take on the colors of that other material.<br /><br />Solutions: There are a bunch of things you can try here. You could use a gray card to "capture" the ambient lighting quality, then apply corrections in post to make the gray card actually be gray, thus "balancing" the light colors. In some cases, using electronic flash, either primarily or to fill, can overcome some of the color shifts. You might also be able to use a reflector to bright some less-colored light into the shot. One caution - sometimes "accurate" color actually is not quite what you want. If you are used to viewing some flower in shaded conditions, with their slightly bluish light, shifting the color to a more "accurate" light color can actually make the subject look artificial. Sometimes it is more a matter of <em>moving towards</em> the "correct" color balance than actually achieving it. If I'm shooting in shade, I may diminish the blue quality of the light but not eliminate it since that blue quality is part of what gave the colors the quality I liked.<br /><br /></li>

<li>Shoot in raw Mode - With these subjects there is a very good chance that you are going to have to make some adjustments in post. Shooting in raw mode will allow you much increased latitude of adjustment by comparison to shooting in jpg. </li>

</ul>

<p>Some may recommend that you use the camera's white balance controls to get good color, but there are many situations in which this gives you anything but "accurate" color. The camera has no idea what the actual colors are in the scene. What it does is attempt to essentially average the values and then move things in directions that are less extreme. But if you, for example, make a close up photograph of a very red flower you still want that flower to be red, not some less red shade. (RAW captures whatever the actual color values were at the time of exposure.)</p>

<p>Dan</p>

 

[derek_thornton1]

<p>Hey Patricia, to get the best shots straight from the camera without software you will have to set a custom white balance and shoot jpeg. You do this by shooting a white card under custom settings. Also keep in mind that you shoot your subject in the shade, morning, evening or cloudy day. Sunlight spilling in can and does effect the colors.</p>

<p>If you can not afford Photoshop, try Photoshop Elements ($79.99). It is all I have ever used and it works great. With Elements you can shoot in Raw instead of Jpeg and use Auto White Balance. Using Auto WB and shooting RAW is very convienient, it is less settings you have to make in the field under changing conditions. I always have issues remembering to change setting, I love Auto!</p>

<p>Good Luck,<br>

Derek</p>

[lintrathen]

<p>Hi Patricia............ I cannot add to the amazing responses you have received here.... but having read the thread, I have learned a lot.<br>

So, thank you for posing the question.............<br>

Regards </p>