Camera help please

User avatar
elecplus

09 Jun 2016, 00:47

I have a really nice camera, and it used to take beautiful pictures. But now everything turns out yellowish. I bought a sheet of bright white posterboard, posted a lamp at both ends, and still everything is yellowed. Just looking at the screen, everything it sees looks yellowed. Any suggestions?

User avatar
elecplus

09 Jun 2016, 01:07

This is what I mean. This is a Cherry G80, beautiful light beige with no yellowing, and this is what the camera gives me. Trying to straighten out the white on the background makes the whole thing looked washed out.
IMG_5322.JPG
IMG_5322.JPG (338.35 KiB) Viewed 3113 times
It used to take pics that looked like this, from last Christmas.
IMG_5179.JPG
IMG_5179.JPG (566.21 KiB) Viewed 3113 times
I reset everything to defaults, but that did not help any.

User avatar
chzel

09 Jun 2016, 01:23

Check the white balance setting, it's way off in the G80 photo. try to set it to AWB and see if it improves things.
For easy reference, http://gdlp01.c-wss.com/gds/9/030000428 ... 3-c-en.pdf page 99

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snuci
Vintage computer guy

09 Jun 2016, 01:28

You are probably using warm lights for those lights that are at the yellow end of the colour spectrum. You might try two things.

First, try without any lights and take a picture with natural lighting. All of my pictures are with no artificial lighting at all. Second, if this works, you can buy cool lights that tend to be at the blue end of the colour spectrum. This may be more helpful but try without any artifical lights first to rule out the camera.

Hope this helps.

User avatar
elecplus

09 Jun 2016, 01:32

chzel wrote: Check the white balance setting, it's way off in the G80 photo. try to set it to AWB and see if it improves things.
For easy reference, http://gdlp01.c-wss.com/gds/9/030000428 ... 3-c-en.pdf page 99
It is set to fill auto and AWB.

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chzel

09 Jun 2016, 01:38

Any chance you have set a picture style?
And give it a try with incandescent WB, maybe for some reason AWB gets fooled?

User avatar
elecplus

09 Jun 2016, 01:41

Unretouched and with just the room lights on, I get this (and the camera turns on the flash):
IMG_5323.JPG
IMG_5323.JPG (450.96 KiB) Viewed 3086 times
Last edited by elecplus on 09 Jun 2016, 01:45, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
elecplus

09 Jun 2016, 01:42

The 2 desk lamps have mini fluorescent lights in them. Incandescent were outlawed.

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elecplus

09 Jun 2016, 01:44

chzel wrote: Any chance you have set a picture style?
And give it a try with incandescent WB, maybe for some reason AWB gets fooled?
I am not a whiz with a camera. I would not know how to set a picture style :-)
I did find the correct menu setting to reset everything to factory defaults, but that did not help.

User avatar
elecplus

09 Jun 2016, 01:53

If I turn off all the lights in the room, and just have slight evening light outside the window, then I get this. It has not been touched, except to resize it. The flash on the camera was used.
IMG_5324.JPG
IMG_5324.JPG (372.75 KiB) Viewed 3061 times
But, the grey on the far left should be pure white!

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snuci
Vintage computer guy

09 Jun 2016, 01:59

elecplus wrote: If I turn off all the lights in the room, and just have slight evening light outside the window, then I get this. It has not been touched, except to resize it. The flash on the camera was used.
IMG_5324.JPG
But, the grey on the far left should be pure white!
You may need to set auto-exposure so that the camera will hold the shutter open longer for light to come in and brighten it up. What make and model of camera do you have. Maybe someone with the same or similar camera can help. I use a Canon Rebel Xsi.

User avatar
elecplus

09 Jun 2016, 02:02

Outside in the shade:
IMG_5325.JPG
IMG_5325.JPG (632.07 KiB) Viewed 3057 times
And in what is left of the setting sun:

IMG_5326.JPG
IMG_5326.JPG (594.27 KiB) Viewed 3057 times
Edit: Of all the pics, this one is closest to color, I think.
Last edited by elecplus on 09 Jun 2016, 02:06, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
elecplus

09 Jun 2016, 02:04

snuci wrote: You may need to set auto-exposure so that the camera will hold the shutter open longer for light to come in and brighten it up. What make and model of camera do you have. Maybe someone with the same or similar camera can help. I use a Canon Rebel Xsi.
This is a Canon EOS Rebel II T2i.

User avatar
snuci
Vintage computer guy

09 Jun 2016, 02:11

Your first pic with no lights on and slight evening light touched up looks good. Low light does need some enhancement.
Attachments
IMG_5324.JPG
IMG_5324.JPG (184.26 KiB) Viewed 3046 times

User avatar
elecplus

09 Jun 2016, 02:19

Now THAT is the correct color! :mrgreen:
How did u do that?

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Muirium
µ

09 Jun 2016, 02:23

Dead simple. Your white background is the trick. Many apps allow you to simply click on a white / neutral grey area and pop, instant colour correction.

Looks to me like your camera is jammed in some manual white balance mode or another. Have look for Auto White Balance in the menus. That's the one you want.

User avatar
elecplus

09 Jun 2016, 02:30

It is already on AWB, and everything else is set to full auto. When I try to use the white balancing on my program, I get this:
IMG_5324 white corr.jpg
IMG_5324 white corr.jpg (388.2 KiB) Viewed 3027 times
And auto correct gives me this, which is still too grey.
IMG_5324 auto corr.jpg
IMG_5324 auto corr.jpg (468.09 KiB) Viewed 3027 times

User avatar
Muirium
µ

09 Jun 2016, 02:39

I should have read the thread! Don't know why it's gone so warm when on auto. I've never seen that in my gear. I'd try it in different modes besides the main auto function. Typically a good one on cameras is P for "Program" mode, where you're essentially semi-automatic instead of all the way there. If it has that.

Looks like Snuci's adjusted the Levels in your picture as well as the white balance. That can work wonders. Command+L in Photoshop (and Acorn which is what I use). Should be something similarly named in what you use.

User avatar
snuci
Vintage computer guy

09 Jun 2016, 02:42

I'm sure there are people who know much more than I but I just take pictures in early afternoon with plenty of natural light and adjust, if needed. I use the picture viewer in Windows 10 to adjust brightness and contrast and to straighten my pics. I then use MS Paint in Windows 10 to resize so the pictures are not too big for posting.

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Muirium
µ

09 Jun 2016, 02:43

I would never have guessed! Your edit of Cindy's pic is Photoshop quality. You know what you're doing!

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snuci
Vintage computer guy

09 Jun 2016, 02:49

Muirium wrote: I would never have guessed! Your edit of Cindy's pic is Photoshop quality. You know what you're doing!
I've had plenty of practice here. Even my MacCharlie pics today were slightly slanted and needed brightness adjustments because they were a little dark.

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elecplus

09 Jun 2016, 02:54

Thanks guys for all your help. I will keep working on this. We have very little real light inside. Huge pecan trees front and back keep us shady and cooler.

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