Try natural bright, but indirect sunlight. We have a bay window that is all white that works perfectly. If you use "lightbulb, flashlights, etc" you will get some bizarre tones from the casts those type of lights give. You can also get casts from anything around...like wood floors or paint on walls. You wouldn't think so, but it creeps in.
CCvacation Jul 29, 2014 7:02 AM PDT
Name: CC PA
DarcyD wrote:Try natural bright, but indirect sunlight.
That's primarily what I use. Just acknowledging that my preferred device for sharing images easily is flawed, and doesn't register the correct red/purple tones regardless of the light setup.
DARCY, I tried the low light setting on my camera and yes, I do think it is an improvement. ON some it actually goes about 25% too yellow, but its correctable. Who would have thought! I was afraid it would over-expose the pics but that is not happening either.
DarcyD Jul 29, 2014 9:19 AM PDT
Name: Darcy D Green Oaks, Illinois
Noni...yay By the "low light" setting, do you mean the cloud setting? It is for cloudy days & adjusts the temperature of the image not the exposure actually. But...glad it worked for you.
It shows a candle flame on the camera dial. Cameras no longer come with manuals. You have to go to the internet and wade through a lot of stuff and then you have to remember it. And then remember it the next season or start all over,
DarcyD Jul 29, 2014 4:09 PM PDT
Name: Darcy D Green Oaks, Illinois
Hehehe
addicted Aug 2, 2014 11:24 AM PDT
Name: Em NY
I am so glad this thread got active again! Why didn't I think to ask our own experts about photographing dahlias? Who better to know what results we are trying to get?
Like you, CC, I am having trouble with reds and purples with my i phone. I like it because it is always handy and usually takes excellent pictures. Benny - what app were you talking about? I would like to find one that could correct this. My previous camera was a Canon powershot A4000, which also had trouble with purples. I did get some decent shots of red flowers last year, but it too could not photograph purples accurately. I had a lovely Thomas Edison bloom and must have taken over 50 pictures of it at different times of day and under different lighting conditions and couldn't get it right. Over time I just stopped using it because the iphone was always there.
Noni, like you, I need to sit down with the manual (and then remember!) what I've read. Half the time I just don't know where to start experimenting with its settings. I can't imagine ever getting the hang of a more complex camera than the point and shoot kind, and hope to find an 'I can live with this' method of photographing purples and reds.
I have read and reread the posts above, and think I'll get out the Canon and try some of the suggestions you made to Noni, Darcy. You make it sound easy, but those dials and settings are confusing to me. Sometimes I have to go back to the manual just to find out how to access them. Not at all intuitive.
I don't know what I can do on the iphone except to point and shoot (which is the way I like to take pictures). But on the Canon, I think maybe I should see if I can reset everything back to factory settings. I may have fooled around with it last year trying to improve the color on TE. It wasn't a very 'good' flower, but I loved the rich purple color and wanted to capture it.
I took a bunch of photos today under cloudy but bright skies, and will post them where they belong. Any suggestions for improving them would be much appreciated.
teddahlia Aug 2, 2014 12:13 PM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
Here is a link to a site that has nice picture of Thomas Edison: http://www.isabellasmith.com/dahlia/12228-dahlia-thomas-e-ed...
I bet it was enhanced using photoshop. Here is a seedling picture that has been enhanced to show purple. The actual color is somewhere in between.
CCvacation Aug 2, 2014 1:07 PM PDT
Name: CC PA
I have 6-7 apps I've downloaded on my iPad looking for a good color correction one, but they just use rough tints and contrast controls with none of the finesse needed to bring back the 'real' tones our eyes see. What you get is a very fake looking flower that lost all its detail and appeal.
Part of the problem, I believe, is that the camera eye just doesnt capture the color spectrum needed to make the image a duplicate of what we see in person.
Exactly, CC. That is why I try for the impression rather then an exact color match. iPhoto does a pretty nice job if you tinker with it enough. I was just hoping to get my camera to make the right impression to start with. And of course WE all see color different depending on the state of the rods and cones in our own eyes, so that adds another variable.
Benny101 Aug 2, 2014 8:20 PM PDT
Greenville MI - zone 5b
I picked up a free app called Aviary but it's much like CC described with some rough contrast and tint control , it does allow me to label photos and some other odds and ends . With lighting I try different locations at different times , remember the Sun gives off different spectrums of color at different times of day , sometimes more blue to orange to Red and back again as it travels across the sky . If you take a photo under High Presser Sodium lights you see a red/orange glow in the pictures that you don't seem to notice with the naked eye because they give off much more of the Orange Red Spectrum .
I take my photos then go in the house to review them so I can judge the lighting results better .
I however am no photographer , I just play one on the internet.
CCvacation Aug 2, 2014 10:10 PM PDT
Name: CC PA
Yes, Darcy really hit on a gem when she said that humidity can change the light spectrum outside... Never considered that before, but upon reflection, that might explain a lot of camera inconsistencies.
The next two images are with the iPad... Note the loss of detail in the shadows, where the red is blown out. Same bloom.
Here's the same bloom in the studio, with a pro camera and pro lights, and basic sharpening/curves applied post-production... (Sorry, haven't emailed the full-res to myself so I could access it from iPad to post here)
Here's a new bloom but same variety after a rainstorm in the evening, with my trusty one-stop IPad...
steve22802 Aug 3, 2014 7:00 AM PDT
Name: Steve Gerber Harrisonburg, Virginia z6b
A few weeks ago I created a little photo studio on my work bench so that I can start developing a better portfolio of pictures that accurately show my flower arrangements and the dahlia cut flowers that I have for sale. Here's a picture of my simple setup that has been giving me good results.
For lighting there are generic fluorescent lighting tubes overhead, 2 compact fluorescent bulbs to the right, a piece of white foam board to the left as a bounce reflector and there is also a little natural light coming from a north facing window off to the far right. My camera (an old first generation Canon Digital Rebel SLR) sits on the tripod with a standard 50mm prime lens and is connected directly to an old Dell desktop computer via USB cable. I trigger the shutter release from the computer and the image files move directly over to the computer where I can view them on a computer monitor rather than just the back of the camera. This is pretty low end gear but it still gives me nice results like this:
The white background is a piece of white foam board and the black backdrop is just a black shirt stretched over a piece of foam board.
To get a good white balance I just take a picture of the white foam board with all the lights on and then go into the settings and tell the camera to use this image as the white balance reference image. Note that you have to use manual focus when capturing the white balance reference image otherwise the auto focus system will hunt and hunt for a nonexistent edge to focus on and never be able to get a focus lock.
teddahlia Aug 3, 2014 7:28 AM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
Very nice pictures. To me it looks much better with the black background. You very good depth of focus, so what f stop are you using? Could you shoot some purple flowers to show us how they come out?
steve22802 Aug 3, 2014 7:34 AM PDT
Name: Steve Gerber Harrisonburg, Virginia z6b
Oh yeah, with this setup I typically use f11 and 1/4 second exposure with the 50mm lens and ISO 100.
Unfortunately I still can't get iridescent violet dahlias like Taboo to come out right. It looks too red/maroon and lacks the purple/violet tones: (I switched to Tungsten white balance and that helped a little.)
If I add blue in Photoshop it looks closer to what I see with my eye:
But it quickly starts to look unnatural if I mess with it too much and I'd rather not try to color correct a mixed arrangement that contains Taboo along with lots of other colors.
steve22802 Aug 3, 2014 7:36 AM PDT
Name: Steve Gerber Harrisonburg, Virginia z6b
Ted, I was typing at the same time as you! The same things occurred to me and I was actually typing the answers to your questions before I even saw your post!
teddahlia Aug 3, 2014 9:05 AM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
It appears that digital cameras do not record some of the deep purple/blue colors and must substitute maroon red colors.
Steve, I love your photo set up and its something I have been meaning to do, though in a much simpler arrangement. I just want to set up the nice background and good lighting to show my arrangements. Thanks for posting what you are doing. Maybe it will spur me onward to do it for myself. I would share more of my arrangements if I had a good background for them.
mandolls Aug 3, 2014 1:05 PM PDT
Name: Geof WI
Steve those are really nice pics - you are going to want to put a copyright stamp on them before they start ending up all over.
teddahlia Aug 3, 2014 2:00 PM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
I did some checking and found out that digital cameras are set to what is called sRGB. This is a great default setting for most pictures. There is another choice and it has slightly more blue purple colors available. It is called Adobe RGB. I took my digital camera out to the garden and shot two pictures of Hollyhill Purely Purple. The first with the default sRGB setting and then the Adobe RGB setting. I have put them side by side so you can see the difference. The purples are more blue in the Adobe picture. It is still not perfect but Adobe seems to do a better job.
By the "low light" setting, do you mean the cloud setting? It is for cloudy days & adjusts the temperature of the image not the exposure actually. But...glad it worked for you.
different lighting conditions and couldn't get it right. Over time I just stopped using it because the iphone was always there.
