Just for Beginners, post your questions, ask for help, get opinions...
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Why are red flowers so hard to photograph? Every shot I have taken of red flowers the color comes out so over saturated? I try to adjust but they still look to harsh? I have notice that any thing red just turns out that way. Is it the color red or what? Others colors turn out fine , so if anyone can tell me a thing or two about shooting red I would love it.
Tina B
Tina, I have the same problem with bright reds, so hopefully someone will answer this.
Your white balance setting could be affecting this. I'm assuming you are shooting Jpeg as opposed to RAW.

Ken Rockwell has a half dozen or so pages on this in his D40 User 's Guide; I gave you the reference to that in your other post (file numbers). Check it out.

Rusty
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness" - Dave Barry

If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough. - Robert Capa

www.prestophoto.com/photos/gallery/19932
I just ordered the book from Amazon this morning and now just have to wait for its arrival. I got a good deal for $10.00 on a used book.
Tina B
Yes, red flowers are problematic, but very often that's also the case for yellow and orange. If you have a look at the color histogram, in CS, Elements or ACR, you'll generally find that the red histogram is squeezed on the right side, meaning that a lot of the red pixels have the maximum value whereas the blue and green are squeezed on the left, with many pixels with minimum value. A saturated color may be defined as being a pure hue, meaning: without any amount of white or gray. That means a saturated color has only one (red, for example) or two RGB components (red and green for yellow, for example). One or two components are missing completely. A saturated red may have some green or blue component, accounting for a slight change in hue.
Let's examine different cases:
- The worst one: A lot of pixels have both maximum red value and no blue, no green. Those pixels will have a flat pure red look, without any difference in hue or luminosity.
- Most reds don't reach the maximum, but there is no blue or green. The result will be a pure saturated red hue look, but with differences in luminosity, which may keep some texture.
- Many red pixels reach the maximum, but either blue or green pixels are present. This will produce a difference in hue and luminosity, keeping some texture and tone differences. The problem of the maximum in red values is that hue and tone will be inaccurate.

Many red flowers are naturally saturated, with either blue or green components missing, or both. To avoid the worst case above, the obvious way would be to underexpose and compensate in editing. The risk is to lose data mainly in the blue component.

To get the best results with red flowers, besides slight underexposure:
- shoot raw if possible. Pay particular attention to color temperature and exposure to avoid red clipping and loss of blue. Be prudent with contrast, saturation or vibrance, watching the histogram. For further levels or hue/sat adjustments in CS/PSE, stay in 16 bits to begin with.
- if you shoot jpeg, be careful to use conservative settings in your camera settings, don't boost saturation or contrast and watch white balance.

Finally, there will be cases where you'll have to compensate for clipped reds (a lot of red pixels at maxium value). If there is detail in the blue or green channel, you may recover those channels and use them as overlays (soft light or overaly blending mode) to give back texture.
Michel B
PSE6, 11,12,13.1 - LR 5.7 Windows 7 64 - OneOne Photo Perfect Suite - Canon 20D, Pana TZ6 - Fuji X100S
Most used add-ons: Elements+


Mes Galeries
To get that exposure Michel is talking about when shooting red I'll either meter off the red if it is large enough and open up a half stop or meter a mid-tone green in the same light and reduce exposure half stop. Yellows swing 1 stop. Whites 1 and half-to 2 stops. That will prevent blowing them out. P.S. This requires setting exposure manually or locking exposure lock in another mode.
I've had some luck using a -2/3 or -1 stop setting when using evaluative metering on the whole scene. Or - better yet - use exposure bracketing and examine the results on the camera's histogram.
Chuck
LR2/CS3/PSE6/Canon 450D, G10/Panasonic LX3
thanks for the explanations . I have so much to learn and it sure takes me a long time to learn it. All of this light metering and bracketing and +1 or -1 is so confusing to a person who has always just used Auto for everything. It is my mission to learn more and shoot better photos.
Thank yoy
Tina B
I just shoot RAW and don't worry about it. Final tweaks are easy in the RAW editor.

Some cameras capture differently also. I used to have a Nikon D80 and the colors were punchier than the D90 I have now. If I was shooting JPG, my camera has color profiles that I can change or set up new ones to my liking. There are profiles such as standard, landscape, etc...that all have different little tweaks and are used for different things. I can also set up my own to backdrown reds or whatever I want.

It's always fun learning and playing around with settings.
While shooting RAW will give you more dynamic range with which to work, it won't help much if you've blown out (seriously overexposed) the red channel. You may recover some detail from the green and blue channels, but if the flowers are nearly pure red, the damage may be irreparable.

I just found that my new/used camera (a Canon 450D) has a review display option that shows three separate histograms, one each for red, green, and blue. I'm going to tackle some red flowers today (nice climbing roses in the backyard) and see what I can learn about how to combine several factors (exposure compensation, exposure mode, bracketing) to defeat the red blowout bugaboo!

Well, after I complete my honey-do list.... :oops:
Chuck
LR2/CS3/PSE6/Canon 450D, G10/Panasonic LX3
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