Shutterstock Photographer Forum :: View topic - Red roses

jmci · Joined: 29 Oct 2006 Posts: 2381 Location: Northern Ireland

I got the idea from Jens' reply in this thread, but didn't want to hijack it.

Is there a trick to photographing red roses without over-saturating the reds? I'm having a bit of a problem with this at the moment.

davidcrehner · Joined: 20 Jul 2005 Posts: 4839

Just don't light them too hot. I find in every camera I've owned, red is the easiest to blow out. Not exactly sure why. I know that there is a disproportionate number of bits allotted to representing green, but not sure if red/blue are different. I've got some roses in my port that turned out pretty good, and not blown out. Just made sure lighting was even.

lj1980s · Joined: 24 May 2008 Posts: 1686

jmci · Joined: 29 Oct 2006 Posts: 2381 Location: Northern Ireland

Thanks for replying - at least it's not just me, then!

I've probably been making things more difficult by trying to photograph the roses while they're still growing in the garden, and the weather has been very sunny for the last few days, so the lighting wasn't ideal. It's clouded over a bit today so I tried again and there was a definite improvement.

ruxpriencdiam · Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2010 8:11 am

I dont know anything scientific about how it is done but like David said dont overlight it and keep it even.Susan posted some help on this as did many others over in the critique / tips / tricks forum awhile back here is the link.

http://submit.shutterstock.com/forum/search.php?mode=results

Hope this helps some.

davidcrehner · Joined: 20 Jul 2005 Posts: 4839

digigandalf · Joined: 11 Jun 2005 Posts: 5412 Location: Twinsburg, OH

I've also found that if you boost the saturation of the overall image (whether by Hue/Saturation or Match Color), it's often necessary to reduce the saturation of just the reds.

jps · Joined: 08 Feb 2007 Posts: 12094 Location: Denmark

There is a trick.
its not in postprocessing and not in the camera. its the famous:

Light.

Normal white light provide us with all colours, but white is not always white. We know that from the colour temperature settings.

The point is, when you shoot primary colours like red you must provide a spectrum of red colours in the range from pink too purple, so you make sire there are a variety of nuances to be caught on the sensor.

So... produce such a range.
and also produce contrasted light to bring the textures out in the petals.

And how?

Well you could photograph it in evening light, that would be easy. Evening light contains a lot of red wavelengths. But dont take them outside in the snow in midwinter. That setting is for blue things.

If you use strobes. Provide red things in the neighbourhood that the reds can reflect from.
Both pink and purple things and blue, the cooler reds are made of a mix with blue. Bottles are good, but a glass of marmalade will do, anything. Use your imagination.

Or a bowl of strawberries, then photograph them also. And eat them.

If you want to practice the theory, then photograph a glass on white with colours in the neighbourhood.

I would also underexpose ½ step and use raw.

If i bothered.

Susan · Joined: 06 May 2005 Posts: 6268

A few things come to mind when exposing for red. The red color is often accompanied by green and green foliage has a propensity for absorbing light instead of reflecting it, so the color green will trick your exposure meter into overexposing.

Tomato Red does not need any exposure compensation because its reflectance is close to the gray your sensor uses to evaluate exposure. Therefore it helps to spot meter for the red in your image when shooting images with both red and green... so that you do not blow the red channel.

Each model of camera will handle the way it captures red differently. For instance the Sony Alpha A700 produced images with some reds and blues slightly over saturated and some yellows, greens and purples slightly under saturated.

If your meter over exposes because of dark greens or other dark background colors predominant in your image and your sensor adds to this by over exposing your reds... your reds will surely blow or become over saturated to the point that the blue and green color information that gives the red object its detail and contrast is obliterated. Typically, the red sensor channel is expected to contain mostly red, a little green, and a bit of blue.

Also your in camera or post process color balance and saturation settings can contribute to the red channel blowing. If your color balance is set too warm that will also contribute to the red channel blowing out. When the color balance is out of whack it will affect the very colorful areas in your photo. For example if the white balance is too red and you shoot a red rose the R and G channels will not max out at the same time and the Red will blow out its detail first.

This article might help you sort it out color balance issues and it will help you understand how your sensor handles each color channel. http://super.nova.org/DPR/Technique/RGB.html

Longer red wavelengths of light can also increased diffraction so depending on the color or red the image may not be as sharp at smaller apertures conversely shorter violet blue wavelengths cause less diffraction. Green holds the most detail. Diffraction would be less noticeable in large format and camera which large pixel pitch or larger photodiodes because diffraction affects them less.

tobkatrina · Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2010 11:27 am

Great information! Thanks a ton for sharing, I too experience this problem.

jps · Joined: 08 Feb 2007 Posts: 12094 Location: Denmark

Susan... You did the geek trick again.

Susan · Joined: 06 May 2005 Posts: 6268

lj1980s · Joined: 24 May 2008 Posts: 1686

tonygers · Joined: 27 Mar 2007 Posts: 2416 Location: Sweden

Susan · Joined: 06 May 2005 Posts: 6268