White Balance Challenge

[mascarene]

My wife has some beautiful plants in the garden, but the colour - a gently fading purple jeffersonia - refusing to be captured by G4 or 10D. Does anyone have any suggestions how to overcome this?

[PacAce]

You best bet would be to correct that after the fact with Photoshop or whatever photo editor you have. A lot of the Canon cameras seem to have a hard time accurately capturing certain shades of purple.

BTW, this problem has nothing to do with the white balance unless what you're seeing is the whole picture having a certain color cast which changes the colors of not just the flower but other objects as well.

[Kennymc]

A lot of films and digital cameras have a job of capturing certain bluey/purple colours I think it is something to do with the way they reflect and absorb light... My suggestion woud be to diffuse the light as much as possible and shoot on an overcast day...

[Todd Jacobsen]

My wife has some beautiful plants in the garden, but the colour - a gently fading purple jeffersonia - refusing to be captured by G4 or 10D. Does anyone have any suggestions how to overcome this?

Have you attempted to white balance utilizing a Whibal or Gretamacbeth 18% gray card in the scene? (ie take sample shot with gray card followed by actual shot of subject - without gray card).

Have you attempted to calibrate your camera? Default factory settings are usually close but not 100% accurate since every sensor is unique to a certain extent.

[PhotosGuy]

Default factory settings are usually close but not 100% accurate... The parameters you've set in the menu may have an effect, too. Once you get it right, then you'll have to face the ink problem. :cry: Not sure how big a factor that will be, but film printing was notorious for not being able to get good reds & magentas. The dyes in the film were different from the dyes in the paper.