A question on my 50D, my poinsettia are not dark red.

I am a new owner of a DSLR and a 50D. I own it for 7 weeks and I am learning alot from the forum and the manual.
My question, when I take photos of poinsettias they are either red/orange or lite red. I know that there are many colors of poinsettias but these are dark red. I use Faithful is on white balance, I like this better then standard, and in standard the reds were red/orange.
I ask you brothers and sisters on the forum help me do better on my photos. What do I have to change on my camera to make a great photo of poinsettias.
I use Corel to fix my photos, but there are straight from the 50D.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

Which lens were you using? This happens to me sometimes too, when the color seems a little off, you should try setting a smaller aperture value, that normally focuses on more vibrant colors.

If you are shooting JPEG, the picture style could be the culprit.

I'll trade ya 50D's Joe, I can't seem to get a handle on my red channel because everything comes out too red. The only way I've been able to control it is by setting my white balance to Kelvin. I've tried every other white balance setting and they all push the red farther to the right than what I would like.

What picture style are you using ? I think "portrait" will give you more vibrant colors than the others.

first of i would suggest shooting them in RAW. Not JPEG. I find red seem to oversaturate easily. When you shoot raw, in DPP, just take the saturation tab back 1 or 2 to the neg side...

That should help...they just look burnt out..

thegary

It's not the fault of the camera or lens.. There are some colours that just don't reproduce accrately..

Some years ago I was shooting a fashion spread for a magazine using medium format and Fujichrome 100iso.. There was one dress which was an kind of orange/red colour which wouldn't reproduce accurately.. Skin tones and other colours were perfect except for this dress.. Luckily the dress' colour was fixed during printing..

When shooting digtal it's a lot more easy to fix any colour problems.. In your case I would have shot RAW and adjusted any colour balance during post processing..

I have read all of your reply's and I thank all of you. I will change the jpeg's to raw. I was worried that the camera was bad. Again, I thank you all.

Joe

Joe M wrote in post #9186509
I have read all of your reply's and I thank all of you. I will change the jpeg's to raw. I was worried that the camera was bad. Again, I thank you all.

Joe

I encourage you to always shoot RAW. I realize that it takes a bit more time at the end of the day, but the flexibility you have with a RAW file is more than worth it. Best of luck, let us know how it works out for you!

Nothing wrong with your 50D Joe.. It just takes some getting used to..

Enjoy

It looks like raw is the way to go. In looking at raw, we have 3 raws to select from. RAW, S1 OR S2? What raw do you use and why?
Joe M

Joe M wrote in post #9188030
It looks like raw is the way to go. In looking at raw, we have 3 raws to select from. RAW, S1 OR S2? What raw do you use and why?
Joe M

I always use RAW. It is the largest file and gives you the most data to work with. The only time you should use a smaller RAW file (s1 or s2) is if you don't have a lot of storage space.

I use sRAW1 when shooting at ISO 800 or higher because it gives less noise than full RAW at higher ISO settings.

interesting Tammy.
Have you some samples showing this? I was under the impression the sensor still took the same shot with the same amount of photocells (or whatever they are called) and the camera just did a resize of the image down to Sraw.

Is it just because you are now looking at a smaller image you think there is less noise? Or is it really less noisy?

I believe that you can adjust your jpeg pictures if you have a program such as photoshop. I used CS2 selective color -reds- and boosted the magenta and yellow. Your poinsettias turned a very nice red.
Save the files as ".tif" and adjust as needed. If you print at home, you should be able to print the tif files. If you print through a photo store, save the final version as jpeg. You won't notice any degradation on 4x6, 8x10 or even 13x19 prints.

i think theyre light because the exposure might be a lil over...try bringing it down and the colors should increase saturation...

talking about color reproduction, try shooting purples.....not sure if its all purples or just a specific type but you will pull your hair out with purple colored dresses and bags...you will not be able to get it right on camera no matter what hehehe....

i believe it is because purple is a "fake" color...i googled the problem when i experienced it hehe.