Colour queries

[PeterD]

Hi all,

I have been recommended to post this image here for your comments on colours/colour balance/cast.



All comments are welcome.

Peter

[NickCantle]

I think it's just about spot on Peter. If you reduced the dominant colour, which in this case is green, you'll subtract from the wonderful relationship between that and purple.

[ron1863]

I agree with Nick, my only gripe would be the plant stalk running diagonally in the background but that could be easily sorted.

[Meta menardi]

This is my take of the same flower.



And a link to another web pic of the same thing.

http://www.wildliferanger.co.uk/user...weed%20(3).JPG

I am not nit-picking, just trying to help.

[PeterD]

Originally Posted by Meta menardi

This is my take of the same flower.



And a link to another web pic of the same thing.

http://www.wildliferanger.co.uk/user...weed%20(3).JPG

I am not nit-picking, just trying to help.

The problem I have is that the flower which I photographed was definately not as vivid as your image. I do not play with the saturation controls and my camera settings are for natural and not vivid/muted. I try very hard to retain as accurate as posible record of what I have seen. That is why I take your comments very seriously.
Now I have seen your image, I shall return and check again the plant I photographed. It may be that my memory is faulty.
Thanks again for alerting me and I shall let you know what I find.
Peter

[PeterD]

Thought I would post this as it is a familiar subject and contains a large range of colours.



Does this show any sign of a cast?

Peter

[Meta menardi]

Your second photo seems fine. The colour of things is very subjective, my photo is taken with a Nikon 4500 , it seems to render colours well and has no settings for colour changes set, the photo is as shot, after re-sizing.

[John D]

Originally Posted by PeterD

Now I have seen your image, I shall return and check again the plant I photographed. It may be that my memory is faulty.
Thanks again for alerting me and I shall let you know what I find.
Peter

Sometimes it's not so easy as that as there are so many variable, the most important one being light and secondly the natural change to the colour of the flower due to time between taking the photo and returning to compare.
Light plays a very important part in what colours look like.
Colours also vary depending on the make of camera used and of course the quality of colour calibration/ profiling used for your computer monitor and printer.
I think we all have the difficulty in trying to retain the original colours whether it be flowers or birds etc. Memory is certainly not good enough for most so it becomes very subjective and a bit of 'fingers crossed'.
Total perfection in photography is not so easily obtained!

John D

[Lancashire Lad]

I don't think that any direct comparison between the two Knapweed photos will give any useful result.

It can be seen from the photos that PeterD's Knapweed is a younger flower than Meta Menardi's (calyx scales greener and less ragged).

Also, there will inevitably be slight petal colour differences between individual plants dependant upon habitat, nutrition etc. etc. This can easily be seen by checking any single species at a given location.

The lighting conditions at time of capturing the photograph also needs to be considered.

Of the two photos, and going on memory alone of Knapweeds found in my local area, I would say that PeterD's photo is nearest to their true colours. (That's not saying that Meta Menardi's photo has wrong colour by any means, and it's probably spot on for the local Knapweeds in the area where it was taken).

As Meta also says, the camera/lens combination can also have an input to colour rendition (albeit small in comparison to the other major factors).

Probably more valid, would be the variation in colour rendition between the monitors that different people will be using to view the photos.

It's a subjective issue, but I go with the premise that if my photos look right to me, (and I'm the one who saw the original subjects), then that's fine.

Regards
Mike.

[PeterD]

I am glad I posted on here. I feel less concerned than I had become. Incidentally, the Painted Lady was taken with the same camera/lens combination.
What I have noticed, and thats why I am glad this subject came up, is that colour can be subtly (and unintentionally) changed during standard editing. I use Lightroom 2 and found the combination of Fill Light, Blacks and Contrast can have a marked impact on colour accuracy. I try not to use these controls too much these days and always compare before and after to satisfy I have not let the colour balance of the original image become compromised.
Any more comments would be good. The great thing about forums is that we can share opinions etc.
thanks all for now.
Peter