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Washed out reds on digital

17 years ago

I'll have to start using the manual settings on my Fuji 8000 to get a photo of my red flowering desert rose but I don't know where to start. I've tried bright sunlight, bright shade and cloudy days. They all get seriously washed out, blazing red. I also tried to get a shot of myself in a red dress (indoors with regular lights) and it turned out to be a red blob in the shape of me. :)

Do I change white balance, aperture, ISO, shutter speed? (last photo has ISO 800, 1/90, f4.5)

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Comments (6)

rcnaylor
17 years ago
I had a similar problem with my Fuji. I think some cameras just don't do certain colors as well.

I never figured out a way to help it much. Lower light shots helped keep it from being as bad, and toning down color levels in editing helped, but, it just never did reds too well.

I hope someone else has found better fixes.
alisande
17 years ago
I agree with what RCNaylor said. I have a similar problem with the color green. It's not washed out, but in a shot of my yard, for instance, it can be overwhelming.

Definitely avoid bright sun, not just for shooting reds, but for just about everything. And you could try lowering the ISO. Eight hundred is pretty high, certainly higher than you need outdoors.

What photo editing program are you using? It helps a lot to have the ability to adjust hue and saturation.
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jemdandy
17 years ago
The white balance may have go astray. Try white balancing your camera, and then do a test shot to see if there is an improvement.

There may be different 'white balamces' for each scene mode such as outdoor-sunny, outdoor-cloudy, indoor/incadescent light, flourescent, etc. Check your instruction manual. If there are different white balance values stored for each different scene mode, perform a white balance for each one. If only one white balance is present, it is likely the one for outdoor-sunny.

It is a good idea to perform a white balance periodically, or after each change of batteries. Often, you can tell if the white balance has gone astry by viewing the stored images on your camera's view screen. Although, the camrea's view screen can not compare to the printed image on photo papar or your computer's monitor, it is good enough to detect bad shots and fouled color balance.
gor-gor
Original Author
17 years ago
I'm using the Microsoft photo editor, but it doesn't have any detail to work with. I tried working with adjusting the ISO and got a slight change, but not significant enough to be workable. I'll look into the manual to see what to do for white balance adjustment. I think I saw at one time something about holding up a white paper to adjust or set it.

Thank you for your help!
gor-gor
Original Author
17 years ago
Here's some examples:
jemdandy
17 years ago
gor_gor:

A funny thing: Your 5 example shots above doesn't appear bad to me. The reds look pretty good on my monitor.

Have you looked at your shots on anything else other than your computer monitor? Have you printed out copies using the "best" settings on your printer and ink jet photo paper? If not, maybe its your monitor!

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