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Incorrect color displayed


Daryl Chan

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I'm using an XT-1 with current firmware and 18-55mm lens.  I'm shooting a colored light display and the color doesn't come out right.  The reflection of the display off of the water in front of it is correct but the display is not.  I tried different white balance settings but it doesn't change.  I don't think it's a WB issue.

 

Any ideas?  See the attached photo.  The lettering is red but it appears yellow.  It's correct in the reflection.  

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From the reflection in the R it looks like you have used a flash too? I wouldn’t do that. I would shoot this when the lights just come on, hopefully when there is some residual ambient light ( it would be perfect if you were looking west). 

 

However, I think that you should play with different color temperature settings because it can only be a color balance issue generated by the fact that you might be using the correct or not type of balance relative to the spectrum of the light source.

 

The light inside the letters Toronto might be fluorescent or not and even if fluorescent there are many types of fluorescent light ( currently your camera should be having 3 different ones). The eye is a very bad judge of these things but the sensor really shows what the light emits and can be corrected accordingly but if you imput the wrong color temperature then everything will be off.

 

If you would be able to enquire about this, from the technical service maintaining that site, they might be able to tell you exactly the type of light used and you might be able to correctly set its color temperature in your camera.

 

Perhaps this helps. Good luck!

 

http://www.apogeephoto.com/july2004/jaltengarten7_2004.shtml

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It's also Adobe RGB, so only useful for CMYK printing and home viewing on wide-gamut displays, but not for showing it on the web or to other people's devices.

 

Reprocess the RAW in-camera using sRGB and a different film simulation (Pro Neg Std offers mode DR), or process the RAW in Lightroom or a similar converter with good highlight recovery.

 

You can also post the RAW file here via Dropbox, so we can fix it for you.

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From the reflection in the R it looks like you have used a flash too? I wouldn’t do that. I would shoot this when the lights just come on, hopefully when there is some residual ambient light ( it would be perfect if you were looking west). 

 

However, I think that you should play with different color temperature settings because it can only be a color balance issue generated by the fact that you might be using the correct or not type of balance relative to the spectrum of the light source.

 

The light inside the letters Toronto might be fluorescent or not and even if fluorescent there are many types of fluorescent light ( currently your camera should be having 3 different ones). The eye is a very bad judge of these things but the sensor really shows what the light emits and can be corrected accordingly but if you imput the wrong color temperature then everything will be off.

 

If you would be able to enquire about this, from the technical service maintaining that site, they might be able to tell you exactly the type of light used and you might be able to correctly set its color temperature in your camera.

 

Perhaps this helps. Good luck!

 

http://www.apogeephoto.com/july2004/jaltengarten7_2004.shtml

 

From the reflection in the R it looks like you have used a flash too? I wouldn’t do that. I would shoot this when the lights just come on, hopefully when there is some residual ambient light ( it would be perfect if you were looking west). 

 

However, I think that you should play with different color temperature settings because it can only be a color balance issue generated by the fact that you might be using the correct or not type of balance relative to the spectrum of the light source.

 

The light inside the letters Toronto might be fluorescent or not and even if fluorescent there are many types of fluorescent light ( currently your camera should be having 3 different ones). The eye is a very bad judge of these things but the sensor really shows what the light emits and can be corrected accordingly but if you imput the wrong color temperature then everything will be off.

 

If you would be able to enquire about this, from the technical service maintaining that site, they might be able to tell you exactly the type of light used and you might be able to correctly set its color temperature in your camera.

 

Perhaps this helps. Good luck!

 

http://www.apogeephoto.com/july2004/jaltengarten7_2004.shtml

I did not use a flash.  It was too far away anyway to make a difference anyway.  I thought it could have been a white balance issue also so I tried them all to no avail.  The fact that the reflection is the correct color makes this confusing. 

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Hi Daryl,

Have you tried shooting in raw and then adjusting the color balance/hue in your converter? This should provide an answer, but perhaps you are not conversant with raw processing?

hth

Jeremy

Very familiar with shooting in RAW and processing it.  If I shot it in raw I would have had to change the hue and tint and it would change the whole photo unless I made a selection in Photoshop.  This still wouldn't suggest what causes this situation in the first place.  

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Hi Daryl,

Have you tried shooting in raw and then adjusting the color balance/hue in your converter? This should provide an answer, but perhaps you are not conversant with raw processing?

hth

Jeremy

I even tried adjusting the Kelvin temperature while looking at the view in the LCD and I couldn't get the letters to appear red.

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Daryl, just a nothe on the answering method, you can answer to all the previous posts in one answer ( even edit the first answer successively), there is no need to give a separate answer to all one in a different post. It makes tedious reading with a lot of space.

 

By adding @ to the moniker of the person whom you are addressing your answer to, one will receive an alert that his name was quoted 

 

I have no reason to doubt your abilities whether shooting or post processing, but, if I may, I will elaborate on my previous suggestion.

 

The reflection in the water is obviously a more saturated version of the light source. The light source is therefore overexposed being the direct source and not the reflection by at least 2 stops.

 

I would try again to go at dusk when the lights are just tuned on. This would provide some ambient light to outline the building at the back ( if that’s what you want) and expose for the light source.

 

This would probably cause the reflection to be dimer but you can select that area alone and push it a little bit.

 

Good luck.

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How does one overexpose a color in one section of a photo and have it not affect that same color in other parts of the photo when taking the photo?

 

Brightness and intensity of a neon sign is a lot different than the reflection of said sign in the water. There have been threads around this on other forums. Blown out red channel isn't uncommon and hard to gauge, unless you check results in camera right when you take the photo and take corrective measures.

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Daryl, just a nothe on the answering method, you can answer to all the previous posts in one answer ( even edit the first answer successively), there is no need to give a separate answer to all one in a different post. It makes tedious reading with a lot of space.

 

By adding @ to the moniker of the person whom you are addressing your answer to, one will receive an alert that his name was quoted 

 

I have no reason to doubt your abilities whether shooting or post processing, but, if I may, I will elaborate on my previous suggestion.

 

The reflection in the water is obviously a more saturated version of the light source. The light source is therefore overexposed being the direct source and not the reflection by at least 2 stops.

 

I would try again to go at dusk when the lights are just tuned on. This would provide some ambient light to outline the building at the back ( if that’s what you want) and expose for the light source.

 

This would probably cause the reflection to be dimer but you can select that area alone and push it a little bit.

 

Good luck.

@milandro Thank you for your posting tips.  I'm new to this and don't know my way around.  "MultiQuote/Quote" don't know what they mean or how to use them.  Anyway I wish I could return to the location to underexpose the photo by 2 stops or so but I was on a vacation.  Thanks for your explanation.  You raise a point that I will have to remember the next time I find myself in a similar situation.

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It seems like this sign changes color all the time anyway: https://www.google.com/search?q=Toronto+sign+Nathan+Phillips

 

But if you really want it red, just fiddle with the color channels in Lightroom or Photoshop until it is red. You can doubtless do better than my hasty attempt.

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