awful photos, worse I've ever done...help please!

Lisi · #1 2006-09-22, 7:12pm

I have a Nikon Coolpix L4 and I use a light cube with a single 100W GE Reveal bulb. I place the beads on a sheet of white paper. I used to take great pictures with my Nikon Coolpix 4300, so I don't know what the difference is here. I'm pretty sure I'm using the same settings.

The first picture is the way they all turn out unless the beads are a blue like in the cobalt hues. Everything else creates this crappy pee yellow background! Then the picture of the squeezed beads is messed up in a weird way. The beads are black, silvered ivory, and ink blue transparent. There is no GREEN on them, so where did that come from??!!

Also, the dime is yellow. Never had this happen before. I do this editing with PSE 2 and always change the background to white which usually automatically corrects the colors. It's not working so well.

Help? Please??

wnbresn · #2 2006-09-22, 8:37pm

HI Lisa
I think the first problem you are dealing with has to do with the 100W GE Reveal bulb. The light you really want is in the 5100 to 5500 K daylight range and the Reveal bulb is only around 2850K new and actually gets warmer (2700k) as the bulb gets older. Its claimed the Reveal is supposed to elimate excess yellow but I have never found this to be the case and I have read in other photo forums that it seems when the Reveals get older they start pushing more Red into the spectrum. I use two 27W N:Vision compact fluorescent bulbs with a daylight rating of 5100K. I get them at home depot for about 7 bucks. The light they produce is nice and white and when used with a camera with the white balance set correctly give me good colors.

Lisi · #3 2006-09-22, 11:54pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by wnbresn

HI Lisa
I think the first problem you are dealing with has to do with the 100W GE Reveal bulb. The light you really want is in the 5100 to 5500 K daylight range and the Reveal bulb is only around 2850K new and actually gets warmer (2700k) as the bulb gets older. Its claimed the Reveal is supposed to elimate excess yellow but I have never found this to be the case and I have read in other photo forums that it seems when the Reveals get older they start pushing more Red into the spectrum. I use two 27W N:Vision compact fluorescent bulbs with a daylight rating of 5100K. I get them at home depot for about 7 bucks. The light they produce is nice and white and when used with a camera with the white balance set correctly give me good colors.

Thank you so much!!! I'm going shopping tomorrow!

BTW - those fish are sooo adorable!!

JanMD · #4 2006-09-23, 6:20am

Lisa, do you have to option to manually adjust the color balance on the L4? Or force it to take a coloe balance sample before you shot?

If not, you can make the correction in your processing software. Do you use Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, by chance?

Jan

Lisi · #5 2006-09-23, 8:44am

Quote:

Originally Posted by JanMD

Lisa, do you have to option to manually adjust the color balance on the L4? Or force it to take a coloe balance sample before you shot?

If not, you can make the correction in your processing software. Do you use Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, by chance?

Jan

I have PSE 2, and no matter what I do, the beads look way off because of this green tinge. I try to correct the color and it just gets worse.

I'm going to try natural daylight today, in a semi-shaded spot. It's a PITA though. Then i'll get some new bulbs.

loribeads · #6 2006-09-23, 11:11pm

I was able to correct some of the problems with the first photo in PSP9.

I did a automatic color correction to 6629 which removed most of the pink/orange tones.

Then I did a brighten/contrast of 35/44.

Final step was to remove what was left of the blotchy background with the magic wand tool.

But, I agree with the others who have chimed in. It would be much easier to correct the lighting up front.

Kalera · #7 2006-09-24, 2:12am

I'm just going to chime it to agree with what everyone else has said, and to say that if you can't find the bulbs at Home Depot (my local one doesn't carry them in a high enough wattage, silly peanut-butter-heads) you can order them online from www.tabletopstudio.com (I like theirs because of the way the base is shaped; it actually fits in most lamps!) or www.buylighting.com, who has a HUGE selection to choose from.

Lisi · #8 2006-09-25, 9:52am

Wow, thanks to everyone!!! What a difference!!

Later on, I will put more $$ into a better set-up, but here's what I've done so far and I'm happy with the results! I went ahead and Photoshop edited these pictures, but with very little color correction. I changed the background to white which did most of the work. They come out dark, but I probably don't really know how to use the white balance preset right. That's my guess. But the colors! Yay!!

I bought a single 27W N:Vision fluorescent bulb for my aluminum dish lamp and used the white paper. I didn't use my light cube and have the "hot spots" glare and specks on the beads, but these pictures are still pretty decent to me. I'll try the light cube and mess with the camera settings a little more. There has to be a way for the camera to let in more light, no??

JanMD · #9 2006-09-27, 5:26am

Excellent, Lisa! Whew! That gold dime was haunting me.

Jan

JanMD · #10 2006-10-01, 6:30am

Well, ***somebody*** has sure solved her lighting or whatever problems! These pix are perfect!!! ---> http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/sh...94&postcount=2

Bravo!

Jan

Lisi · #11 2006-10-01, 4:48pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by JanMD

Well, ***somebody*** has sure solved her lighting or whatever problems! These pix are perfect!!! ---> http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/sh...94&postcount=2

Bravo!

Jan

Thank you Jan!

I still can't believe it was as simple as replacing a Reveal with a fluorescent bulb! I never thought these kind of bulbs would be good for photos. They are suppose to be very energy efficient and save a lot of money on the electric bills vs. regular incandescent bulbs. Plus, they have a 9 year warranty!

For the $6.97 it's worth it, and now I want to get some for the whole house! They have 40 and 60 watt equivalents in packs of 8 at a pretty decent price at Home Depot. The light is soft and easy on the eyes.

ukiacat · #12 2006-10-02, 7:02am

Kalera, I just thought I'd tell you that if you go to the Home Depoe at Exit 10, off of I-205, that one has the 27 watt N:Vision bulbs. My husband bought two for me yesterday....same price as Stephani's at $6.97.

Thanks for starting this thread Stephani. I can't wait to try out the bulbs.

J

wnbresn · #13 2006-10-03, 4:33am

Glad to see people find the N:vision bulbs usefull One thing I forgot to add to my first post about the bulbs was that because of the way they are made they might not fit own into the socket on some lamps because their base is a bit wide. All you need to do is bu a light socket extender for about a 1.70 (also at home depot) Then screw that onto the bulb and then screw it into your lamp. It extends the bulb out a bit but no real problem. Good shooting all...

barbbbeads · #14 2006-10-04, 8:59pm

I get that ugly yellowish background too sometimes, and have a hard time correcting it. Sometimes I take one picture and that background appears, then adjust my camera angle slightly and get a nice white background. I've been using halogen bulbs, but upon reading this, I'll have to try the fluorescents. Should have taken photography classes back when I was in high school and they still had them. At least I would know about f-stops and aperatures and all this other stuff. Even with digital cameras, it certainly is worth knowing about now.