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The Dark Room -- Photo Editing and Picture Taking. Advice, tutorials, questions on all things photoshop, photo editing, and taking pictures of beads or glass.

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  #1  
Old 2007-01-15, 12:15pm
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ldiamont ldiamont is offline
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Default Help! Blue problems!

I have a Sony CD Mavica, a light tent and two light sources (one OTT and one natural light). I am having trouble photographing blues.

I have some beads that have a base of medium lapis (almost navy). When I take their pic, they lapis comes out really light lapis.

I tried messing with the colors on Elements 2.0, but nothing seems to work.

Any one have any ideas?

Thanks,

Lisa D.
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  #2  
Old 2007-01-15, 12:52pm
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Feldt's Glass Feldt's Glass is offline
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I used to have that camera. For darker shiny items I tried to use natural light. I was able to get really good shots using sunlight. I had a black cat and was able to capture how cute she was. With a flash she looked oily and all messy. I have found that with some of my beads as well.
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  #3  
Old 2007-01-15, 1:51pm
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Idiamont - are you having trouble with the blues when looking at the photos on your PC, or when you print them out to a hard copy?

If its when looking at them on your PC, it might be that your colour calibration is off. Most PCs come with a standard graphics card, and many of them are not very accurate. Other than buying a better graphics card, check out the 'settings' options on your PC control panel and see if you can readjust the colour a bit.

If its when you print the pictures, it might be that you're using CMYK mode(Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) rather than RGB mode (Red, Green, Blue). Most software - like Photoshop - uses the RGB configuration as default, so check your software to see that it hasn't been changed to CMYK accidentally.
Unfortunatley, most printers are CYMK - you can get RGB ones, but they are more expensive.

The CMYK process has real problems with blues - especially those lovely purplish blues in lapis. I worked as a graphic artist, and always noticed that CMYK blues were either too turquoise-ey, or the periwinkle blues seemed flat and lifeless.

anyway, hope this helps a bit.
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  #4  
Old 2007-01-15, 3:20pm
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Actually, most printers are RGB. They print in CMYK inks, but they interpret the files as RGB. That's where a lot of the probelm comes from.

Digital cameras can't process blues very well. The blue channel of the image almost always has too much information or too little information. One way to compensate for that is to open your image and adjust just the blue channel. I don't know if Elements will let you do that or not, though.

When digital cameras first started coming out, every photo we got in to print you could count on it that the blue channel was off. It got to the point that I could tell you right away without even checking how much to adjust the blue channel.

Anyways, try photographing with different white balance settings. Just because you may be using incandescent lights, that doesn't always mean that the incandescent setting will work best. That would be way too simple, right? Take a photo of a certain object using all the different white balance settings your camera has (without changing anything else) and then look at them on your computer and see which one looks best.
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  #5  
Old 2007-01-15, 9:32pm
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Thanks Cosmo, I will try that with the white balancing.

The lapis color does not even show up right in the viewfinder. It looks lighter from the get go. I just remembered that periwinkle shows up as light blue. I have a set of beads with periwinkle that I can't list because the color just won't come out right. I don't print the pics, I just use them for e-bay listings.

I did try some shots in natural light and it came out a little better, but it was still not the right color at all. Sigh.

I am entertaining the idea of a new camera anyway. This one only has 3.3 MP. I want to spend about $250, any suggestions?

Thanks,

Lisa D.
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  #6  
Old 2007-01-16, 8:28am
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It's not the camera. Some of the best photos I've seen came from an old 1.3MP point and shoot camera.

I'm sure your camera will take fine pictures (unless there is something genuinely wrong with it). It's just a matter of finding out what settings work best for you and your lights.
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  #7  
Old 2007-01-16, 8:59am
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Lisa, one of your problems is mixing your light sources. Thats a no no. And that is why, when you shot with just natural light they came out better. If your light sources are mixed. You will have two different color bias, which may need very different color corrections. Example, if you fix one color, the other color could become worst. If the lights are the same, your color adjustments will go a lot smoother. Think of light as a neutral flame. And pretend one light was oxy and the other reducing.
Scott
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Last edited by Tanner Studios; 2007-01-16 at 5:11pm.
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  #8  
Old 2007-01-16, 4:40pm
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Duh! That makes sense. I will give it a try!...

Thanks,

Lisa D.
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