Paper flower ?

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  • 07-11-2011, 08:15 AM
    armando_m
    Paper flower ?
    not really ...

    but the PP makes it look almost like paper

    http://gallery.photographyreview.com...500_-1_800.jpg

    The color of the flower is somewhat close to what it really is, the camera originally captured it in blue, looks nice but, it is not the real color.
    I have found that the nikons (D40/D300) and now the EPL1 struggle to get the correct color ( white balance ?) when capturing this tones, the JPGs will show the flowers as blue

    On this shot I used the on camera flash through some white plastic bag I had in case of rain , that after a shot with no flash had the flower to dark.
    If I manually change the white balance to something much warmer , the flower will look closer to reality but everything else will look to red and unnatural

    Shot in raw
    converted to tiff with PSP
    played with the Tiff with colorefex pro (tonal contrast) and viveza ( color balance) on the flower only, background should be untouched
    resize and sharpening on PSP

    it will be interesting to try with a gray card or a color grid ... I have not used them before

    Anyone else struggling to obtain the right colors in some cases ? :D

    Thanks in advance
  • 07-11-2011, 08:50 AM
    LeeIs
    Re: Paper flower ?
    oho man, all the technical data makes my brain hurt. lol.

    for correct colour balance i heard 'grey card' works wonders. or is that for exposure? hmmm.

    i see what you mean by paper, the texture does look like paper. but as far as the photo goes, i see what you mean by a colour balance problem, also, that big leaf in the lower right bothers me a bit. Also, there's soo much brown! i love seeing green foliage with flower shots.
  • 07-12-2011, 03:32 PM
    GB1
    Re: Paper flower ?
    Thanks for publishing this Armando. I have noticed the exact same thing - I simply cannot get the correct color to register properly on my Nikon digital cameras (700 or the 200 I had before). That shade of purple is just a problem for the sensor.

    I believe the gray card is for exposure setting, not color. At least you have been able to get the right shade of purple in PP, even though it throws off your other background colors ... I've NEVER been able to get it the way I remember it no matter what I do.

    Anyway, this one has a nice glow, but watch fade out on the near edge of the flower. I find that I have to use a smaller f stop than I expected - at least a full stop, or even two.

    G
  • 07-12-2011, 06:03 PM
    armando_m
    Re: Paper flower ?
    Thanks Liban

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by GB1 View Post
    ... but watch fade out on the near edge of the flower. I find that I have to use a smaller f stop than I expected - at least a full stop, or even two.

    G

    yeah, I also used autofocus and the darn focus points are large , this thing was to close to the ground and made using manual focus to complicated

    ok so I'll have to try a color grid (what's the right term?) then , maybe that helps, or mybe a sensor problem ?
  • 07-12-2011, 07:50 PM
    Anbesol
    Re: Paper flower ?
    Maybe try setting the in-camera provessing settings down, like saturation and contrast, I think the problem like this is mostly an issue of saturation, whereas the shade you are trying to get is a more subtly saturated kind. I've noticed Nikons and the E-PL1 tends to oversaturate by default. I suppose you also tried adjusting the white balance on the tint slider, not just the kelvin? Not sure how PSP's raw converter is. On the cameras custom WB option, as well as in the converter there should be an option for a tint slider that goes from green to magenta. A few degrees of tint difference may make no real noticable difference on the bg, but may make a pretty substantial difference for the bright purply tone of the flower.