# How do you take a good pic of a purple pen?



## omb76 (Feb 27, 2011)

I've tried just about every setting on my camera and every time I try and take a picture of a purple pen, it turns out blue.  It's a very nice shade of blue, but not what I need.  It's really not productive to ask your customer, to imagine that this pen is a great royal purple instead of the royal blue that you are seeing...  Any tips?


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## G1Pens (Feb 27, 2011)

My first inclination is that your white balance is off. BUT...pictures of other pens you post seem to be okay, so I have doubts that there is really a problem there. Are you doing any processing in software? If so, most software has some way to adjust the color.

Again, the fact that all your other pictures seem to be spot on, makes it a bit more of a mystery.


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## gketell (Feb 27, 2011)

I ran into this in the past too.  Even using a color correction card to make sure the WB was perfect, the pen photographed blue when it was really beautiful purple.  Here are two pictures, one of the pen, the other of how it was photographed with a color correction card.  

That pen is actually a deep, royal purple made using Transtint Purple dye mixed with Red food color.  

I *think* I once got a good picture of it by photographing it in natural sunlight on a bright day.  But I'm not sure and if I did I can't find that photo.

Good luck.


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## G1Pens (Feb 27, 2011)

Some camera sensors are better at capturing certain colors than other cameras. The color correction card is a great idea if you know how to use it and know how to adjust the colors in your software in post processing.


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## Chasper (Feb 27, 2011)

omb76 said:


> I've tried just about every setting on my camera and every time I try and take a picture of a purple pen, it turns out blue.  It's a very nice shade of blue, but not what I need.  It's really not productive to ask your customer, to imagine that this pen is a great royal purple instead of the royal blue that you are seeing...  Any tips?



Buy a $2000 camera.

It may not take that much case, but I had a lot of trouble with purple too, we upgraded to a better camera and it now gets closer.  The ability to adjust to white balance is a must.


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## ed4copies (Feb 27, 2011)

Test different background colors.

I don't remember what works, what brain???

I think it is cream or tan that made the purples stay purple.

Will try to find some pics and give more info.


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## arioux (Feb 27, 2011)

Try a grey backgroud, might work.


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## ed4copies (Feb 27, 2011)

arioux said:


> Try a grey backgroud, might work.




Yep, that's the one I found most often in the purple pens that look purple!!  Darker grey


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## JerrySambrook (Feb 27, 2011)

Alfred pretty much hit it.  A medium-dark to dark grey background.
It lessens the amount of "white" and lets the purple be more purple.

BTW did you folks know that bluebirds are not blue, but are black? according to scientists.

And I thought color was how the eye percieved it, and was not that scientific.


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## MatthewZS (Feb 27, 2011)

Try different color lights.  You lights might be of a color that's changing the pen's color.  Green light's like some tungsten's or halogens might be doing it.


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## omb76 (Feb 27, 2011)

Thanks for the suggestions. I just tried a gray background and not much different. This particular pen is made from Madreperlato Purple and is definitely purple and not blue with purplish hi-lights.  I also tried black with no luck.  Here are a couple of pictures... one with the white background and the other with gray.  Maybe the gray is not dark enough?


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## SDB777 (Feb 27, 2011)

Have you tried the way I do it?
http://www.penturners.org/forum/showthread.php?t=67214

Scott (it'll work....) B


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## monophoto (Feb 27, 2011)

In the noble past, when photography was done on film, this was a well understood problem.  Now that it's all done by computers, photographers have forgotten the basics.

This is a phenomenon called 'anomalous reflection'.  It's a problem that occurs when photographing objects that are at the blue end of the spectrum, and comes about because the spectral sensitivity of the eye is different from the spectral sensitivity of the film (or digital sensor).  A more common example is that photographs of Morning Glory flowers never are the same color we see when we view the flowers directly.


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## studioso (Feb 27, 2011)

monophoto said:


> In the noble past, when photography was done on film, this was a well understood problem.  Now that it's all done by computers, photographers have forgotten the basics.
> 
> This is a phenomenon called 'anomalous reflection'.  It's a problem that occurs when photographing objects that are at the blue end of the spectrum, and comes about because the spectral sensitivity of the eye is different from the spectral sensitivity of the film (or digital sensor).  A more common example is that photographs of Morning Glory flowers never are the same color we see when we view the flowers directly.



Hopping on the conversation:
This is still an issue with digital, because as sensor limitation, but also because of color space issues. 

I suspect that the purple in question is outside of sRGB color gamut. This is a the most basic standard color space, and it's what is used most often.

 Your camera shoots RAW images. Then it compresses them and converts them into Jpeg. When it does, it renders the colors into a specific color space, the most common one being sRGB. This space is recognized by virtually all displays, softwares, etc. Which is why it is the default color space for most cameras. However, it is quite limited: many deep shades, particularly purples, reds, some vibrAnt blues and yellows get compressed to less vibrant colors. 

Your camera might allow you to save jpgs in the adobe rgb color space, which is much bigger and much better. But for your purposes it might actually make things worse: most software, including all popular browsers do not recognize assigned color spaces, and display all images as sRGB. Basically, the picture will probably look bad. 

I think I tried to say too many things in a few paragraphs ( while typing on an iPhone!!) but you can google some of these terms to get a better picture (ah ah) or even better: ask me, I'd love to be of help.


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## Sylvanite (Mar 4, 2011)

How's this?


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## Sylvanite (Mar 4, 2011)

Or this?


Ain't Photoshop grand?

Regards,
Eric


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## Sylvanite (Mar 9, 2011)

Part of the problem is chromatic sensitivity differences between the eye and the camera sensor, but part is also ambient light color and spectra, and also psychology.  The mind is very adept at changing the actual colors our eyes see to the colors we expect.  Cameras can't do that.  All they can do is record the wavelengths that impact the sensor.  If the color temperature is skewed, you'll get skewed results.  If the light source is missing the spectra of natural light, then the camera can't record certain colors.  Tungsten lighting is skewed to yellow.  Fluorescent lights are greener and rather monochromatic.  Even the CFL bulbs that are "color corrected (by giving them a blue coating) for photography lack the mix of wavelengths present in sunlight.

For the best chance of reproducing the color of a purple pen, photograph it outside on an overcast day.

Regards,
Eric


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