My small still life of a green apple became overwhelmingly blue. I tried 30 different shots, indoors and out, without a flash and in a darkened room. Cannot lose the blue between the lens and the artwork. Any suggestions? Is the color of a Granny Smith particularly difficult to capture?
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I sometimes have a problem with colour accuracy. I too shall be interested to know if anyone has some ideas on this.
Depending on your camera software you can adjust the RGB (red, green, blue) to enhance the green. This may mean reducing the blue. I use canon, so it would be File, edit, color/brightness, then RGB. I hope this helps, it is frustrating when the color doesn’t read correctly.
Hi there, you could try taking a picture with a piece of white paper along side the apples. Then use a program or app to make the piece of paper look white. If the paper is looking blue reduce the blue channel, or bring the red and green up. Some apps have a simple warm cool function…so to get rid of the blue cast move towards the warm.
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Thanks Linda…I’ll take a look at my HP manual.
Thank you Ken, I’ll try that.
I have struggled with this too and still do. I have come to the conclusion that the best way to photograph is using the light that the painting is created in. For better or worse, this is how I do it with a camera set up on a tripod in front of the painting with a wired remote. I do my best to get the photo right by adjusting settings and taking several exposures. I place a target beside the painting and include this in the photo.
I use my computer to adjust on the overall colour from the white on the target then crop. I use Gimp but Photoshop would have similar capabilities.
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Thank you Gary…I am getting so many helpful responses on this problem.
This link is well worth reading, by Don Finkeldei. It should answer many question.
I scan my small works instead of taking photos. I have an 11x17 scanner, so it’s really easy to get images of small paintings. If the color is a problem, I then photoshop it to the best and closest approximation without making it look phony. Hope that helps.
Can you could post a few of the photos? There are a number of causes for inaccurate colors but it would be easier to narrow down the cause if we could see examples of what you’re getting.
All were deleted…I found the suggestions offered (especially with the use of white paper) extremely helpful…and tinkering with Photoshop as well. Thanks very much for your interest.
Thank you Theresa…I have found gentle use of photoshop to be quite helpful.
Adjust the white balance setting on your camera. It can be done after the fact in a photo editing program too. That is essentially what the white paper trick does, but it easier that moving multiple sliders. My most used tool in Lightroom is the white balance tool. Just click on a white area on the painting and it automatically adjusts white balance.
I always photoshop to try to color correct as much as possible. Here’s a trick - place the original art right next to the photographed art on your computer monitor. Compare color-to-color using a piece of white paper with a hole punched through it, moving the hole from the monitor image to the original art.