If you have the ability to turn off your flash, that will generally give you more accurate color. Obviously you have to be in an area where you have other lighting to compensate(natural lighting is best).

Hope that helps and good luck!

Also, avoid shooting in bright sun. Cloudy days or early morning/late afternoon is best.

They are right on: your camera is adjusting it's "eye" for darker shade, which overexposes the lighter shades. By shooting in situations where there is not harsh contrast (bright brights and dark darks) your pics will get more evenly exposed.

The ideal light is when the sun is low in the sky, at about 30-60 minutes after sunrise and 30-60 minutes before sunset. After sunrise is often better than before sunset because the air is usually more still, so the flowers are not bouncing around on an afternoon breeze.

Dappled shade also gives good photos of flowers in a vase. You can move the vase around to catch certain parts of the flower with a splash of light.

A thin, light overcast is good. A heavy overcast makes the colors very dull and washed out.

If you look at the photos in really fine garden books, the ones the professionals take, you can see the long shadows--they've usually taken the picture just after sunrise.

For some reason, I can't take good bush shots of light pink ones.

Carla

What hoovb says applies to photographing any light colored object.

I should have added more info. I turn the flash off. Take pics in the early morning or evening when sun is not bright. Individual flowers photograph fine just not the whole bush shots, like what Carla says. Does anyone have a camera that takes good pics of full light pink or white bushes??

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I played with the manual settings and it worked!!!!! Yeah Here is Morden Blush.

I am so impressed, that is PERFECT! I have the same problem, what on earth did you do? I guess it may never work for me as I really have a hard time trying to figure out the technical part of the camera - and oh-I-wish that I could, but if you have a reasonably simple explanation, I would love to hear about it.
Thanks so much in advance.
Pauline - Vancouver Island

PS, also, I am curious, if like myself, do you have a lot of tall dense trees around you. This makes for terrific contrasts in light that I have blamed for the difficult time that I have taking just the kind of pics you are talking about.

I just take several pictures with different setting and hope I get one good one. Even take some when the camera is telling me not enough light and that one sometimes comes out the best.

Your problem is that the pale pink flowers are overexposed, in a see of dark green leaves. This is what your camera will automatically do if you set it to the "automatic" or "point and shoot" mode.

The key is to control the following:
1. The object lighting
2. The background (and foreground) lighting
3. Controlling contrast in your composition
4. Camera settings of speed, aperture and ISO.

You need to experiment - i.e. "fool around" - with your camera. It's much easier to learn nowadays with the digital camera. In the "old days" of film cameras, one would have to shoot at different apertures, speed, ISO, take the film to develop and then see the results. And, of course, there is the cost of the film and the developing.

I would start off with simple manouvres - try varying the aperture - which determines how much light is allowed in to hit the sensor for a given period of time that the shutter is open. The smaller the number, the more light that's allowed in. The higher the number, the less light. You can do this either with the manual setting (usually "M") or a selection on your camera called aperture priority ("A" or "Av").

Once you have "fixed" the aperture size, you then compensate for the variation in light hitting the sensor by varying the shutter speed, and the "film" speed - the ISO setting. If your camera has an Av or A setting, then, I won't worry about those - just switch to Av, select the aperture size and camera will do the rest. Unfortunately, I don't believe there is an Av or A setting on the Power Shot SD400 - you have to set it to M (manual mode) and get into the menu to select the ISO's. Refer to the owner's manual.

An interesting impact of varying the aperture is that you will vary the "depth of field". The depth of field is the distance range of the picture where all objects will be withing focus. The larger the aperture, the narrower the range, rendering every thing outside of that range out of focus. You can use this to advantage, as, together with careful lighting, you can make an object "pop" out of the background, like this:

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However, it won't be much good if you want a picture of a whole bush or a whole bed - in which case, you would use a smaller aperture setting.

There is an excellent on-line resource, DigitalPhotography.com, which gives fairly clear tutorials on the various aspects of digital photography.

Nice shot! Morden Blush is very tempting . . .

The "little red dot" in the 'middle' of your focusing screen is there for a reason.

It is at that point that both focus and exposure are calculated by the camera.

No one ever speaks of this when giving advice and it's... way overdue.

The "little red dot" rules everything else (and I do mean rules everything else)

Select the area you wish for the camera to interpret and press the shutter release halfway down to lock in that level of focus and exposure. If you wish to recompose, that's fine, but keep the shutter pressed halfway while doing so.

This would, for instance, mean that in the case of photographing a rose bush that one would--presumably--take extreme care to focus on a rose petal that is of the proper color and well lit and, in general, representative of what one wishes to capture in the photo.

To make the point: one would not for instance make the mistake of framing a beautiful composition wherein the "little red dot" just so happened to land on a green leaf or an area of glare, etc.

Nor, would it be good if the "little red dot" landed on the bright yellow stamen of a dark red rose. The "little red dot" must always be precisely where it belongs.

Doing this consistently is an art form.

After you've mastered this, and only then, is it time to start experimenting with flash and aperture values.

There's more along the same lines.

Most modern cameras have the ability to program in the area of the scene that will be considered in calculating the exposure values. In some cases this extends all the way down to "spot" metering. If your camera has this capability then it's very helpful to know how to use it in the context of rendering color appropriately. Turn it on. Experiment with it. It's far more useful than aperture and flash settings--although they certainly have their uses!

M

Great explanation, Michael! Except not all digicams work that way. Some have five-or seven-point metering systems. To make Michael's advise work for each individual you will have to know if that is how your cmera functions. A GREAT way to learn your way around your cameras manual settings, though!

Both, your pic is very nice, a very balanced exposure. Good on ya! :o)

It's much easier to learn nowadays with the digital camera. In the "old days" of film cameras, one would have to shoot at different apertures, speed, ISO, take the film to develop and then see the results. And, of course, there is the cost of the film and the developing.
* * *
Gosh, amen to THAT, Joe! I still use a 'regular' camera, and while I have been able to take some wonderful photos I have also spent so much money on developing ones that turned out so-so.

If all else fails, you can open your file in Photoshop and adjust levels. I usually end up adjusting the midtones (the middle slider). If you haven't used it before, it's very easy. (and if you are familiar with Photoshop, please forgive the assumption.) Here are some pics to show the difference adjusting levels can make. (I exagerated the adjustments in these examples.)

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And here's the Levels window in Photoshop. The left slider adjusts shadows and darks, the middle - midtones, the right slider effects highlights.

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Wow thanks for all the help!!! I will have to copy this page to keep.
Paula, For the photo that came out I set the camera to manual and changed the exposure from 0 to -1 and that did it.
I don't know why I never thought of setting the camera on manual and playing. I actualy took photography in highschool but that was too long ago for me to remember much. Again this info will be so valuable for the future!!! Amy

Amy, I so much appreciate you starting this topic. I pulled out my camera manual which is very, very worn - but I doubt if I had ever read anything to do with manual exposure. It does not look too complicated and I have found out that I have Manual Exposure Assistance, so that should be a big help. I sure am going to give it a try now. Some great responses and imput to your post. "Bravo, guys"! I to am going to save this, right now. :) Thanks a million!
Pauline - Vancouver Island

Here is what I love about this thread...

Figuring out how your camera actually works is a little like the first time you planted a rose. You may not have really known what you were getting into until you were in love. I used to have a point and shoot camera and now I have an SLR. I started with the thought that I may like a rose bush and now I am constantly trying to figure out how to squeeze more roses in.

Luckily, photography and gardening are complimentary compulsions!

I'm thinking of upgrading to the Nikon D60. I have a nice digital camera (Fuji 600) but it's an older model, so it's S L O W and it doesn't do color very well.

I was wondering if anyone had any experience with the D60 as far as color trueness and macro capabilities.