Purple Looks Blue

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Andy1

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Andy
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Does anyone know how I can get around this problem:

purple.jpg


The ribbon is purple, but looks blue to me.

I am taking the photo on a desktop shooting table and as I don't have any 'proper' lighting, I am using the continuous daylight kit I got with my light tent (not using the light tent anymore). The lights came with a cover and there are 3 lamps in each head, so I can sort of control the light. I thought I could try and use one of these as a softbox if I put a cover over the head.

So, I have the item of the shooting table and to the right/above the head of the light. That's it. No matter what I try I can't get it looking any more purple than in the photo above. I'm sure it could be adjusted in photoshop, but I would like to get it as good as possible first (without buying more lights). Is this possible, or do I need to dig deep and spend more money? :crying:
 
White balance maybe?

If you do resort to photoshop I think you just need to decrease the saturation in the blue channel very slightly.
 
This is the colour it should be:

SuperStock_1647R-160309.jpg


To me the photograph I took is more blue than purple. Although it could just be my eyes.

Adjusting the saturation has helped a bit, so that would be a solution, thanks.

Of course, having a decent SLR would help, and decent lighting.
 
The top picture certainly doesn't match the sample above. Are you shooting in RAW?
 
If you are shooting jpeg then you have limited options for changing the WB - which I think is the problem.
 
Just set a custom white balance
 
What colour is the bg colour supposed to be - grey or white? It defiinitely looks purple to me on my monitor. Doing a quick colour correct doesn't alter the colour of the ribbon noticeably to me , but does give a slightly warmer look overall.

I suspect you need to do a custom wb shot to get the purple right, and you also need to guard against under-exposure which will also affect the colour.
 
White balance will help.

So will exposure. From the top pic I'd guess you are about 1.6 stops under where you want to be. And post processing to "fix" this won't always help.

Blues and purples go all weird due to the tone curves in the jpeg processing (or they do on Nikons anyway) - correct whibal and exposure and if it's still wrong we'll have to talk about camera profiles and tone curves.
 
How would the white balance help with the purple? This isn't something I have done before with this camera.
 
Andy1 said:
How would the white balance help with the purple? This isn't something I have done before with this camera.
Click to expand...

You can do a custom wb shot using a white card or an 18% grey card, if there's any sort of a cast on you image affecting the colours it will be most noticeable on the lighter tones. If you use a white card for the custom wb - you're simply telling your camera - "this is what white looks like," and if it gets the white right all other colours should fall into place.

You still havent said if the bg is grey or white.
 
The background is white, I am shooting on one of these:

l_06693846.jpg


I tried setting a custom white balance by using the plastic base on the table for the WB ut it didn't make any difference. Will search for some card.
 
Andy, by background, I mean the colour of the box/wrapping the ribbon is attached to?
 
Andy, by background, I mean the colour of the box/wrapping the ribbon is attached to?
Click to expand...

Sorry. Below the ribbon it's white, above it's off white with a pattern.
 
Andy1 said:
Sorry. Below the ribbon it's white, above it's off white with a pattern.
Click to expand...

Set up your subject on the table just as you intend to take it, and set up your lights. Put a white sheet of paper onto the table so that it's in the same light in which you intend to take the shot. Make sure that the white sheet completely fills your viewfinder. Take a shot of the white sheet.

Now set the shot of the white sheet in your camera as the custom white balance shot. Remove the sheet of paper and take a shot of your subject - you shouldn't be far off.
 
I have done what you suggested, but had to do it slightly different. On my camera there is a WB button that I press to take the photo that is used for the WB. I set the WB by putting the white card in the same place as the items will be and took the image.

I have tried taking the shot again, but it's still the same. It's as thought the custom WB isn't being used.
 
Andy1 said:
I have done what you suggested, but had to do it slightly different. On my camera there is a WB button that I press to take the photo that is used for the WB. I set the WB by putting the white card in the same place as the items will be and took the image.

I have tried taking the shot again, but it's still the same. It's as thought the custom WB isn't being used.
Click to expand...

What camera are you using Andy?
 
What camera are you using Andy?
Click to expand...

It's only a Konica Minolta Dimage A2 (nothing special). Its' not even mine, I'm just borrowing it until I can get my own.
 
You can download a mnaual for the camera from here Andy. CLICKY

I had a quick look and it does seem there's a facilty to set custom wb, but you'll need to follow the procedure exactly as in the manual.
 
I have followed the manual, and the icon does appear on the display to suggest it is using the custom WB, but the ribbon still looks blue. Strange! :thinking:
 
WB issues can be a bit problematical, even with pro kit Andy, and there's aways the possibility that your sensor or in camera processing is having a problem with this particular colour, although the under-exposure isn't helping either

Good luck anyway, but if you're going to be doing a lot of this sort of work you'll need to get to grips with WB and perhaps think about getting your own gear to famliarise yourself with. The key to the result you're after is a good clean white for the box - the purple should look right if you can achieve that.
 
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It's getting a bit better, but it's still not right. I might have to accept there will be a bit of photoshop work to do when capturing purples.

I will keep having a play around with it.

Thanks for you help.
 
As already stated , start with the correct exposure, then you have an excess of cyan in your light.
purple5.jpg

I know that I used to have problems with accurately recording some colours on film as u.v. light causes some dyes to flouresce, this could be minimised by placing u.v.filters over the light source, this may be the same with digital too.
 
Slightly off topic, when I look at the ribbon here in the TP thread it definitely looks Blue, but if I open the file in Photoshop then it appears as Purple.........

So it could also be the software that is being used?

Lastolite provide a Blue Daylight Gel (on their ephotomaker kit) to simulate daylight conditions when using an ordinary desk lamp and this may improve matters if you used a Blue Gel filter when using the continuous lighting kit you have.

Regards
 
Scott: I have just had a play around with the hue, and it's giving the best results so far.

I have tried adjusting the exposure, but the ribbon still looks blue. I'm sure it would help if I had a decent camera body/lens and some better lights. But hey, this is all I have to work with, at the moment (and it's 10 months until Christmas) :)
 
scottthehat said:
hi andy what camera have you got, also what software are you using do you shot raw or jpeg.
Click to expand...

I am borrowing a Konica Minolta Dimage A2 at the moment, so nothing special. I am looking to buy my own, but will have to go down the second hand route.

I don't use PhotoShop as I have little patience. I use software called PhotoPlus X4, which I find easy to use and give me the results I need (usually). It also has great tutorials and is a fraction of the price of PhotoShop.

I shoot in jpeg. Wouldn't even know how to shoot in RAW. I am very new to this, as you can probably tell. I was more forced into it by my wife than actually wanting to do it. Although I can now see why people enjoy it.

Just by adjusting the hue I got from this:

newblue.jpg


to this:

new.jpg


So it's getting there. I did read on other forums that some camera have issues with capturing some shades of Blue.
 
Those shots are still massively underexposed. Fix that and I bet the colour issues evaporate.
 
You've been given some good advice here, let's see if I can summarise it...

1. The white balance needs to be set correctly, it needs to be a custom white balance.
2. Exposure is critical, if it isn't right then nothing else that you do will get a good result
3. Purple is just an awful colour to get right, most colours are easier, and especially reds/oranges
4. You can do a lot in Photoshop, especially with selective colour, but it's best to get it as good as you can in camera.
5. Your camera may not be ideal (some cameras manage colour better than others) but I'd say that it's probably the least of your problems.
 
Andy, I'm guessing that you are not sure how to fix your underexposure problems. You are shooting something that has lots of white (or cream, hard to tell) so your camera will underexpose it without manual input.

There is an exposure adjust button (usually a +/- within a box) on the camera, set that to +1 or +1.5 and see if that makes the card less grey looking.
 
This looks to me like a colour management problem. I have a calibrated monitor and in both Firefox (with colour management enabled only for tagged files) and IE8 (without colour management at all) the ribbon looks blue. When I save the file and open it in Lightroom it looks purple.

20110207_103459_000.jpg


If I enable full colour management in Firefox then the ribbon turns purple. I would conclude that the file is not an sRGB file, but what it is, and where FF and LR are getting the profile information from I do not know, because if the file was tagged correctly then my original Firfox display should show purple too (I think).
 
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