# It's not easy being green (or blue)



## larryc (Apr 4, 2012)

Shown are three pix taken with my Olympus C-2500L SLR 2.5 megapixel camera. There were no changes made to camera settings or lighting between the shots. Only the pen was changed.

This is the way the pix came out of the camera. The pix have only been cropped and saved as jpg. No other PhotoShop effects have been applied.

Has anybody have any idea what is causing this effect and how to fix it (other than replacing what is sitting on the tripod)?


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## BSea (Apr 4, 2012)

Do you have a white balance setting on the camera?  If so, there should be some instructions in the manual about how to set the white balance.  That should help.


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## azamiryou (Apr 4, 2012)

Your camera is set to "auto" white balance, which is the default on most cameras. Your camera probably has a setting to change it. You want to change the setting to match your lights, or (if your camera has it) choose the "custom" setting where you fill the frame with something white (your background should work) and press a button to "set" the camera to recognize it as white.


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## larryc (Apr 4, 2012)

BSea said:


> Do you have a white balance setting on the camera?  If so, there should be some instructions in the manual about how to set the white balance.  That should help.



Yes, but I didn't change it between shots. I can fix it to some degree with WB in PhotoShop but it still leaves a tint to the overall pix.

Are you saying that the WB adjustment, if set properly on the camera, would automatically correct the color for each shot?


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## larryc (Apr 4, 2012)

azamiryou said:


> Your camera is set to "auto" white balance, which is the default on most cameras. Your camera probably has a setting to change it. You want to change the setting to match your lights, or (if your camera has it) choose the "custom" setting where you fill the frame with something white (your background should work) and press a button to "set" the camera to recognize it as white.



You answered while I was typing the above reply. I'll try that. Thanks


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## 76winger (Apr 4, 2012)

azamiryou said:


> Your camera is set to "auto" white balance, which is the default on most cameras. Your camera probably has a setting to change it. You want to change the setting to match your lights, or (if your camera has it) choose the "custom" setting where you fill the frame with something white (your background should work) and press a button to "set" the camera to recognize it as white.



Along with White Balance, I also prefer to use manual settings for aperture and shutter settings too, that way, the only thing changing is the pen in the photo and the exposure isn't affected by the change of color from the subject. 

This recent SOYP thread shows two Emperors that would have caused your issue shown above if I had used auto settings. But they don't because I had white balance and exposure settings all on manual and adjusted to the lighting conditions, so the only difference is the pen in front of the camera: http://www.penturners.org/forum/f13/matrix-emperors-95883/


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## larryc (Apr 4, 2012)

Well I guess cameras are like computers.
They don't do what you *want* them to - they do what you *tell* them to.


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## 76winger (Apr 4, 2012)

Very true. As with any tool (yes, cameras and computers are tools), you have to understand how they work so you can make them do what you want.

Sent from my iPad using Forum Runner


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## farmer (Jun 17, 2012)

*might buy or copy a 18% gray card*

Canon EOS 450D Rebel XSi - Setting a Custom White Balance - YouTube 

Farmer


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## MattTheHat (Jun 18, 2012)

One of the posts mentioned being able to *almost* correct the color cast in Photoshop.  Bear in mind that you're almost always going to have a mixed light source to some degree. Daylight plus incandescent, plus flash, for example. That's one reason why the auto white balance function rarely seems to work as expected. Another consequence is that an image shot in that light simply cannot be accurately color corrected. Unless one light source is much, much stronger than other(s), different parts of the picture are going to have different color casts.

The fewer the light sources, the more accurately the photo can be adjusted. Incandescent and fluorescent overhead lights are the usual suspects here, even if they're supposed to be daylight balanced. You're generally better off without them, especially if you have any type of shooting lights at all.

-Matt


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## farmer (Jun 18, 2012)

canon g10 14.7 mp
iso 100 f6 under a 4 ft flo light with 4 layers of tissue paper between the light and object 15 second shutter speed 
best regards
farmer


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## 76winger (Jun 19, 2012)

One key to controlling the white balance is to always use only one type (and color rating) at a given time. Never mix incandescent with fluorescent or any other combination, you just can't properly color correct for it.

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