Washed Out Colors

[CaptNarcissisto]

Ok, so I\'m now able to get clear pictures, and have even gotten rid of glare by adding a light diffusion box. My seemingly last photography problem seems to be washed out colors.

When taking pics I use my diffusion box with a blue/white gradiated backround using an Olympus C-720, and three small halogen lamps as my light source. My problem is that the colors seem to get pretty washed out, with the backround looking almost grey. So I end up having to mess with the color balnce to try and fix it. This seems to possibly be a lighting problem, but I\'m not sure how to fix it. Any suggestions?

 

[Dragonsreach]

If you could stick up one of your pictures (Try Photobucket.com) Some of us might be able to give you a rundown on what we think is happening.

From your description I have a small inkling of an idea what might be happening, but a picture would help.

 

[CaptNarcissisto]

Here\'s a sample. I\'ve only cropped it, and haven\'t changed it otherwise. The grey backround was originally a blue/white gradient.

 

[Legacy Account]

Try changing the settings on your camera - you should have some indoor/outdoor, natural/artificial lighting options. Looks like your lights are giving you a colour cast, the pic aint washed out....

I don\'t bother with lighting anymore, just stick the mini under a skylight in the attic on a white background and Photoshop the rest.

 

[Starfall]

Here you are...

Et voilà:

(Click to enlarge)

Photoshop\'s a solution, but many other programs like that will do as well.

 

[War Griffon]

If you are using Photoshop then before doing anything else I always hit the Shift+Control+L for auto thingymajigs and it just does it for me, probably the same as everybody else

 

[airhead]

It looks like you have the wrong color balance option on the camera. That or one of your halogen lamps is really an incandesent (notorious for yellow light).

Photoshop it to correct colors and brightness/contrast. Crop to suit. Adjust image size to fit CMON and upload.

Losing highlights is normal with bright lights - for the same reason actors have to overdo their makeup as well.

When you think the paint looks good, go back and darken the shadows one level and brighten the highlights one level - maybe two then you are ready to take pics.

 

[Beelzebrush]

If you have Photoshop there\'s a few things you can do...

Levels - ctrl + L (better than \'auto levels\' as you have more control)

Curves - ctrl + M (similar to levels and colour balance- adjusts RGB channels and tonal range)

Colour Balance - ctrl + B (adjusts CMYK values and can be used separately for all tonal values too - shadows, midtones & highlights)

Hue/Saturation - ctrl + U (adjust hue... ie if something appears too red and you want it orange, play with hue. If it appears very saturated adjust the saturation level etc..)

Best thing is to play around with these until you have something that looks right and matches the model.

I usually remove the background with the \'magic eraser\' and then move to image onto a new window making it a separate layer, than add a background on the first layer with the graduation fill tool.

I think your image is a bit dark and has a yellow cast, so firstly I open the Ctrl + L (levels) and adjust both the highlight slider and then the midtone slider until it looks correct and brighter. Secondly I open the colour balance window (Ctrl + B) and add more cyan and a little blue and also a touch of magenta - again until it looks right). Lastly I erased the background and moved the image over to a new (ctrl + N) file and added a graduated background).

BTW... if you use the magic eraser and it leaves a fringe of the background or it removes a section of the mini, play around with the \'Defringe\' option - Layer > Matting > Defringe.

All these things are very useful and just need a little experimentation to get the image right.

 

[CaptNarcissisto]

Thanks for the responses. I\'ll give the suggestions a try.

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by CaptNarcissisto
My problem is that the colors seem to get pretty washed out, with the backround looking almost grey. So I end up having to mess with the color balnce to try and fix it. This seems to possibly be a lighting problem, but I\'m not sure how to fix it. Any suggestions?

Hi, first off your colours aren\'t washed out - that would be if they were looking too close to white.

In addition to being a little dark these shots are too yellow so there are two things you should try to do at the photography stage straight off - adjust the camera\'s white balance and expose for slightly longer. If you aren\'t using your camera\'s tungsten/incandescent setting try that but you might need to set up a custom white balance, if you can, to adjust for the colour of the halogens.

You can fix either of these problems very easily using Photoshop or similar image-editing software (in a number of ways) but it\'s better to get them right to begin with as it saves time and gives you better final results.

Einion

 

[Nomis]

White balance?

I am still getting to grips with my new camera but do know that one of its functions is to read a white balance from a piece of card/paper to check the light/colour levels before taking pictures.

You can probably do the same which will hopefully reduce the colour problems you are getting.

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by War Griffon
If you are using Photoshop then before doing anything else I always hit the Shift+Control+L for auto thingymajigs and it just does it for me, probably the same as everybody else

Auto Levels. This is a great single-step adjustment for certain images as it can fix tonal balance and colour casts in one go, but it\'s best used only for photos that have a good white and at least a spot of black in them.

Originally posted by Beelzebrush
Levels - ctrl + L (better than \'auto levels\' as you have more control)

Yep.

Originally posted by Beelzebrush
Curves - ctrl + M (similar to levels and colour balance- adjusts RGB channels and tonal range)

Just in case you don\'t know, you can adjust the individual channels in Levels too.

Good tips on the magic eraser for a new background.

...

For anyone who uses Photoshop to fix their pics routinely, instead of doing one adjustment at a time using the Image > Adjustments menu, it\'s better to use adjustment layers (easy access via the layers palette, click on the half black, half white circle) to set up multiple adjustments over the background layer and then save the pic as a Photoshop doc, PSP, before you flatten, crop, resize and lastly sharpen before saving as JPG.

Keep the layered PSP file, you can then drag these adjustment layers over to any new pic (making sure the order is the same as on the source pic) and sometimes without making any changes to the adjustments you\'ll get an instant fix on the new pic; good for consistent results if you photograph under the same lighting conditions.

Einion

 

[Legacy Account]

Or you can just save them as an Action and batch process everything....

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by Spacemunkie
Or you can just save them as an Action and batch process everything....

Very good point!

You should still eyeball an image prior to final saving though, to check the adjustments worked correctly. TTL metering can give you unexpected effects, especially in digital photography where it can adjust white balance in addition to exposure for fully-auto settings.

Einion