I bet you all know this...I just figured it out...
first I use Paintshop pro 7
old program I know...but I know it!
I recently bought a photo cube and lights even tho, if the sun is out I don't seem to use it and continue with my old habits... I have posted a tutorial on photographing iris beads here some time ago...
but...that is now why I am here...
with the photo cube I had to deal with adjustment for the fluoro lighting.
with help I eventually found what I needed in paintshop pro...it was
auto color balance... I am sure you all have that in your programs.
Since I have been fiddling with that here is what I found...
even if...I am shooting in natural light...
If I use the auto color balance that corrects for natural light it greatly improves the photo....I will upload some examples to show you what I mean and you might get some use out of it too...
I think you can readily see the difference at this first step if you make the correction for sunlight EVEN IF YOU are shooting in with natural light.
BTW (same as you would have with a photo cube but i have been doing that for years...
I never shoot in direct sunlight. Always indirect lighting. With
iris beads it is much better to not have any shadows.
The reason being that the subtle shift in the colors over the surface of the bead can be lost when trying to correct the lighting with shadows....the "flatter ah the less contrast of lighting" in the photo of the beads, the better the iris colors will be highlighted.