Getting good photos...

[Quinn]

The camera I am using to shoot my tank really screws with the colours and I have to edit in Photoshop to get even close to the true colours of the tank. I get better shots when I use the flash but of course then I have to deal with the reflection. What are you guys using to light the tank as you shoot it?

[christyf5]

I don't use anything to light my tank except for the tank lighting. Sheesh that sounded terrible . Do you have a white balance on your camera? I usually try to set it on something white in my tank (PVC returns or a rarely seen white spot on the sandbed). It seems to help out the colors but sometimes I still have to fiddle with it in photoshop.

Christy

[venkiw]

I have also experienced the same problems, I fould using bright background setting with no flash gives the closest to the real thing.

But I guess it varies from Camera to Camera.

Venki

[Nemain]

If you stand on your head, count to seven, turn aruond 8 times, sing "I feel pretty" ... it still looks terrible, but you feel better about it

I find with the light in my house if I turn a yellowish light on to my back, I get a much truer (if this isnt a word - it darn well should be!) to color picture, regardless of camera settings.

[Beverly]

Quinn,

I use only tank light and an Olympus C5050, no flash because of the reflections. Pics are pretty decent, but there has to be enough light in the tank. Have either MH and PC lighting on my tanks.

[Jason McK]

OK do you want to get technical or just keep it simple.

First what type of camera are you using.
Digital camera will have a white balance feature some are more complex than others. Mine for example has 5 preprogrammed and 4 custom. I only use the custom. you should set the white balance every time you move to a different location in your tank, because often the combination of MH to VHO or PC or NO will change the colour.

The next question would be. Are you sure it is the camera that is taking bad picture of your computer displaying bad pictures. Most of us bought out computer monitors based on dot pitch, refresh rate and cost and size. But colour space is not something many manufacture list. The average computer monitor can not reproduce the same colours our cameras have the ability to capture. There fore the monitor converts the colour to something it can display.

There are about 15 other variables that if your interested I can go into. Photo shop being a large one

Let me know if anyone would like to hear more.
(Usually my rant on colour theory is a thread stopper)

So I will stop now

Jason

[Quinn]

My tank is lit by dual 400w halides, it shouldn't be a problem.

I find the photos come out either extremely dark, or extremely yellow. The camera is an Olympus D520.

Fire away with your colour theory, I spent about four years in the design industry so I am familiar with Photoshop and the associated colour theory. Generally I just use curves and brightness/contrast adjustments to fix the photos. I think it's mostly the camera. My monitor is a Viewsonic A90 17", 0.22mm dot pitch, in 32-bit colour, and does fine with photos taken with other cameras. Are you suggesting the average camera shoots above 32-bit color depth?

[Jason McK]

Well Currently there is nothing higher than 32 bit.
You can find high flatbed scanners but the bits higher than 32 are to compensate for cheep manufacturing or defects in the capturing array.

Colour temp is more important then Watts. I will assume you are using a 10000K bulb. This bulb to the average camera will look very blue, as all film and CCDs are balanced to 6500K or Daylight (the colour temperature of the noon day sun). The first thing everyone must be made aware is that all digital camera run the raw image through software. Each manufacture has there own proprietary software that is integral to the operation of the camera. Each camera interprets the voltages produced by light hitting the CCD in a different way. I would say at this time there are only minor differences in software despite the fact that many manufactures looked at the problem in many different ways. You may find the dark areas in a Kodak camera have detail were the same images taken with a Canon looses detail faster the darker the image area gets.
That being said the camera software is always looking for white in order to create an image that has correct colour. This is done through software. Under 10000K bulbs the camera knows that the entire image is very blue and needs to make something white. This is were White balance is so important. With out it the camera will find a highlight area and just make it white. Often the result is yellow pictures. Yellow being the complimentary colour to blue in a Light colour wheel.

I believe this is your issue. The Camera is over compensating for the blue in your tank. I'm not familiar with the D520's operations so after dinner I will do a web search to find info on white balance for that camera and get back to you.

If you post a pic I will have a better idea of the colour problem.

Thanks
J

[Quinn]

I've just downloaded the manual and figured out how to set the white balance so I will play with that and see what I can figure out. I will take some regular photos in the meantime and post them here.

[Jason McK]

Try one as normal then do a custom white bal and post the comparison.

If you don't mind
J