akitareefer
Active Member
Just made this little diagram so you can see how lighting and white balance can change the appearance of coral.
What are your thoughts?
What are your thoughts?
Lighting and how it effects your photos
- Thread starter akitareefer
- Start date
- Tagged users None
Hi nice work. It's definitely important to know that adding different portions of the visible spectrum changes the appearance of coral or any subject in photos. and to your eye as well.
A couple of questions.
What camera did you use. What was the WB setting you used. Did you keep the same WB for all the photo's? Did you post process the photos?
A couple of questions.
What camera did you use. What was the WB setting you used. Did you keep the same WB for all the photo's? Did you post process the photos?
OP
OP
akitareefer
Active Member
Canon 70d with stock lens, probably could have captured same photos with my T3i. No post processing other than exposure and stitching the photos together with text. Shot .jpg only, not raw. Different white balance profile was used for each lighting. Each white balance is vastly different, basically varying intensities of orange.
OP
OP
akitareefer
Active Member
I honestly wanted to post this for all the photoshop police [emoji38]. It's apparent that lighting has a huge impact on natural saturation and coloration of photos. I see so much negativity and misunderstanding surrounding the issue.
Absolutely Agreed. Great thread idea.
However I would rather say varying intensities of blue though judging by the bulb choices and progression. Thus the higher blue addition in each photo the increase in WB, ie 8000k to say 10k to 16k. But yes the O Y and R are generally missing in of course in reef lighting. The coral plus carrying the most R Y O. the P plus does carry some I believe. I looked at it with a photometer last year. its a mixed phosphor.
Did you wind up saturating the R Y O individually?
And I think you may be surprised at the spectral response(color of you pictures) between the two cameras as well, assuming the same exposure values and white balance (10k) and color setting(vivid standard etc) on the camera. I would bet a dollar they wold appear different.
FWIW It was also been my experience that the nikon Jpeg has a wider color gammut (range you can manipulate color) than the Canon jpeg. and reverse with the nikon NEF raw format being lower than the Canon raw.
So what the photoshop police sometimes fail to understand is when you shoot at say 10k at the max of your camera, it still captures the exess. "too blue" by post processing it, your removing information,(the unwanted peaks,)
and pushing the wanted peaks.
And there is really only so much information in the jpeg or raw file. AND it varies from camera to camera. And price tag to price tag for sure. An eight processor nikon DSLR will capture more info than the 4 processor one with the same sensor using the same compression(jpeg raw.)
So for best results , get to know your camera. Mix up your lights.
OP
OP
akitareefer
Active Member
I will have to play around with the T3i and see if I can white balance from the same pictures. I wonder if it can make similar pictures or how different they would be
its subtle but its there. keep in mind the color setting(vivid standard etc) to keep it a scientific experiment.
Steve Ruddy
Active Member
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2009
- Messages
- 315
- Reaction score
- 156
- Location
- Guerneville CA
- What state or country do you live in
- California
I think it's not such a big deal. Unless you are profiling your images, the viewer is looking at them with a browser or software that can render that profile, and they have a calibrated monitor there is no assurances they are seeing what you want them to see anyway. If your trying to sell corals I think you should include info about your lights and process your images to look like they do to you while under those lights. Why do any white balance if the result is not what your seeing when you look at your tank? On the other hand I process my coral shots for maximum color range and aesthetic beauty and don't care at all if it doesn't represent the coral as seen in my tank. When I put corals on CL I try and process for realism.
Yes a little is nerd tech. But the basic color of light understanding how it relates to white balance for ease of photography is good for the average the average hobbiesst too.
And yea. I have a calibrated monitor.
And yea. I have a calibrated monitor.
OP
OP
akitareefer
Active Member
Here's the T3i and the different lighting. I couldn't use the same wb profiles. The card is formatted differently? I left all the setting basic again. T3i color isn't as nice but not too far off
SantaMonicaHelp
Valuable Member
Lighting is undoubtedly one of the most important principles when it comes to photography and depending on your camera calibration, you may or may not be able to capture the authentic color of your coral; the diagram you've put together is a great example of the stark differences. Glad you pointed this out for others to see.
-JN
-JN
sil40sx
Well-Known Member
To see the actual difference on the comparisons you're making on the subject, you need to put "all" settings to manual, especially the WB in this scenario, otherwise you wont get consistent result. Just my .02
Oh, and nice frags you have there! I'm jealous, I cant wait for my tank to mature to get sticks.
Oh, and nice frags you have there! I'm jealous, I cant wait for my tank to mature to get sticks.
Lumini Aqua System
Active Member
What's your suggestion for white balance? my pics looks a bit blueish.
What's your suggestion for white balance? my pics looks a bit blueish.
increase your wb to the 10,ooo kelvin or above.
sil40sx
Well-Known Member
^^^ what he said. Go up as high as your camera allows you.
Lumini Aqua System
Active Member
I'll try, thank you!
