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Off Colour Flowers with B700


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2 replies to this topic

#1
Colin B

Colin B

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I have  Nikon Coolpix B700 which i really like but recently it has thrown up a rather strange problem.

 

I took a photo of a bunch of Jacaranda flowers, shooting up with a bright blue sky for a background and the camera set on automatic.

 

The details were: 

 

ISO 200

Shutter 1/250

Aperture F5.6

Focal Length 161mm - (range around 15m)

 

When I looked at the photo the flowers were pink, not the correct Jacaranda blue and I had to use Photoshop to punch up the blue and dial back the red to get the colours right.

 

A few days later I tried a similar shot and the colours were rendered correctly.

 

Just yesterday I held up some blue/mauve hibiscus flowers and shot them on automatic against a bright blue sky and they turned pink too.  Another shot taken looking down at the flowers in the shade turned out perfectly. 

 

Details for this shot were"

 

ISO 100

Shutter 1/1600

Aperture f3.8

Focal Length 40mm (range - arm's length)

 

There does not seem to be any adjustment for white balance in automatic mode but I am puzzled by the random nature of this problem. Is it just the bright blue of the background sky causing problems for the sensor or is it possible ultraviolet from the sun is upsetting things?



#2
Merco_61

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Flowers can be tricky when it comes to WB. Many species have colours well into the (for us humans) invisible spectrum to attract pollinating insects. This can, in some situations, throw the white balance off. The more light there is, the worse it gets. It is a good idea to have a gray card or a colorchecker available and shoot it in the same light as the flowers so that you can profile the light in post if the camera gets things wrong.

 

A Lastolite collapsible gray card or a Colorchecker Passport are perfectly pocketable and make getting the correct colours much easier.



#3
Colin B

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Thanks Merco. I was able to salvage both pics with Photoshop but I will experiment with the white balance in some of the non-auto modes and see it I can get to grips with it. There is plenty of bright blue sky here in Australia at the moment :P