[vagabond79]

So I have been taking flower pictures lately and I read somewhere that photographing purple/blue flowers in overcast light (cool light) can look really nice. I tried this and it did look nice! Then I photographed some yellow/orange flowers under the same conditions and they looked not so nice. I thought I should just be able to fix the white balance in PP but I still couldn't get them to look very good.

So my question: Does the color cast at the time the photograph is taken matter? (Assuming I am shooting in only RAW)

Thanks.

[enoeske]

So I have been taking flower pictures lately and I read somewhere that photographing purple/blue flowers in overcast light (cool light) can look really nice. I tried this and it did look nice! Then I photographed some yellow/orange flowers under the same conditions and they looked not so nice. I thought I should just be able to fix the white balance in PP but I still couldn't get them to look very good.

So my question: Does the color cast at the time the photograph is taken matter? (Assuming I am shooting in only RAW)

Thanks.

If its only 1 color source of light, then, no it doesn't matter much. Mixing sources means you can only correct for one of the sources and the other will throw off certain parts of the image. If its just 1 source, then the hard part is correcting for that cast without any sort of neutral reference. Its just a guessing game.

[vagabond79]

If its only 1 color source of light, then, no it doesn't matter much. Mixing sources means you can only correct for one of the sources and the other will throw off certain parts of the image. If its just 1 source, then the hard part is correcting for that cast without any sort of neutral reference. Its just a guessing game.

So you don't see any problem with shooting yellow/orange flowers in cool light? Next time I will take my grey card for reference and see how Lightroom corrects the color cast.

[Murfy]

in raw in lightroom it doesnt make a difference. I think there are camera profiles that you can choose but for pentax I think adobe standard only choice. nikon I think I get more options

[stevebrot]

Unrealistic color cast for flowers can be problematic for digital sensors, though usually it is for shades of deep blue, violet, or purple (camera cannot capture, even in RAW). The quality of the original light is always a factor. If the light is deficient in warm tones, the color of objects in that light will follow. After all, you can't record what is not there.

Here are a few tips:

• Shoot flowers in full-spectrum light if possible
• Use RAW
• Making a gray card exposure may be helpful in establishing proper white balance later in Lightroom
• White balance alone will not make up for color-deficient light
• It is possible to use the Hue sliders in Lightroom to map warmer/cooler values, though doing so may not provide a natural-looking product

Steve

[skierd]

I run in to this a lot between the bright violet and magenta of fireweed and the deep blues and purples of the Jacobs ladders, blue bells, and monks hoods up here. I usually go out when it's sunny, next summer I'll wait for a cloudy day and see if that helps.

[aleonx3]

Two approaches I would take if there is a strong presence of color cast. First is to take RAW and if possible use grey card (or a paved road), second is to use a fill flash to add white light to the mix with ambient light. Last but not the least, there is still another step I could take using Silkypix when importing RAW file for development and select a suitable color profile.

[rrstuff]

It matters a little. For example, if you illuminated a sample with only red laser, then your image will contain no information for green and blue, and that's the extreme case.
Usually your light contains a spectrum of colors and if one of them is less pronounced (for example cool light) then you lose some color information from the red pixels, and your red channel will be darker, more noisy, and the color depth will be lower.

See this for a relevant article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamerism_(color)

[Lowell Goudge]

For me, as long as you don't have AWB fooling you with the bias of the image, the only issue with natural colour cast, is your mind filters this out, you see white regardless, even though the camera sees red on overcast days, blue on sunny sky days and Greek if you are min the shade.

Personally I find high overhead cloud but otherwise bright days a the best full daylight to shoot in

[Digitalis]

...the camera sees red on overcast days, blue on sunny sky days and Greek if you are min the shade.

Does that mean you will be running a white balance deficit?

[Lowell Goudge]

Does that mean you will be running a white balance deficit?

Depending on what you set for WB yes.

I generally return mine to daylight, because it is easiest to correct either from red or green back to daylight if you need to when you forget to think about your real conditions

Normally though the only issue is when you do side by side comparison of images made on different days, but you may wish to think about it a little, in the preparation of your shot. Your camera has overcast, daylight and shade WB settings for a reason,

[enoeske]

Does that mean you will be running a white balance deficit?

Depending on what you set for WB yes.

I generally return mine to daylight, because it is easiest to correct either from red or green back to daylight if you need to when you forget to think about your real conditions

Normally though the only issue is when you do side by side comparison of images made on different days, but you may wish to think about it a little, in the preparation of your shot. Your camera has overcast, daylight and shade WB settings for a reason,

Whoooosh

[Digitalis]

yep...that joke went straight over his head.

[Kerrowdown]

Whoooosh

yep...that joke went straight over his head.

Your just too subtle.

[MadMathMind]

Unrealistic color cast for flowers can be problematic for digital sensors, though usually it is for shades of deep blue, violet, or purple (camera cannot capture, even in RAW).

You got this right. Purple almost always comes out wrong. I see a lot of purple in my costume photography...makes such hard work for me.

in raw in lightroom it doesnt make a difference. I think there are camera profiles that you can choose but for pentax I think adobe standard only choice. nikon I think I get more options

There is an embedded color option as well. There are no JPEG profiles for Pentax, as you point out.