 Ryan Chai |
How To Get More Color Saturation I was just wondering how some of the photographs on this website are so colorful. How do I get such saturation? My pictures always seem to be a little dull as far as color is concerned. I am shooting with 100 speed Slide film from Fujifilm that is brand new. Any suggestions? Thanks
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Bob Cammarata |
The problem, Ryan, may with your lens rather than your choice of film. Some generic brands have inferior optics which are unable to focus certain colors of the spectrum accurately. If your camera accepts inter-changeable lenses, look for descriptive acromyms like "ED" or "APO" in their descriptions. these optics are designed to focus all colors of the spectrum on the same plane and yield more true-to-life results. If your camera has a fixed lens and you are able to control exposure, try under-exposing a brightly lit subject by a half-stop... sometimes, this will punch up your colors.
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Ryan Chai |
Thanks Bob, I have a Pentax PZ-1p with a 28-200 lens made by pentax it is not an ED lens. I will try to under-expose those hotter areas. Do you know if Pentax makes any "resonably priced" ED or APO lenses?
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Bob Cammarata |
I am not too familiar with the Pentax line, but they do make an 80-200 ED lens for @ $1350. Before you decide to go that route, you may want to consider a simple test. If you have access to a standard fixed lens (50mm), try photographing a group of different colors in direct sunlight...then, again, in deep shade. (A box of crayons works great.) Then, shoot the same colors with your zoom lens set at 28mm, 50mm, and 200mm. Keep track of each exposure in a log, and compare the results. This will determine the ability of you lens to interpret colors. If you notice that some colors are inaccurate, then ED glass may help.
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doug Nelson |
How are you converting your slides to digital images? Do the slides themselves look weak, or is the digitized result weak in color saturation? I'd bet there's nothing wrong with your images that some tweaking in a $69 imaging program can't fix. The basic Levels fix for contrast and brightness using Elements 2 or Photoshop LE (very cheap on eBay) does wonders for colors. Like fixing the car, try the cheapest fix first.
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Ryan Chai |
I will do that Bob, thanks again for your time. Doug, I am scaning them in with a $1000 Microtek 8700. I am using iPhoto with my Mac. I could probably import the image to my NLE as a JPG and control saturation there. I was wanting to inhance my saturation without using a digital medium. Thanks
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Michael McCullough |
Maybe this may help,for colours such as white ,pink ,yellow ,as well as most pale,light colours in the spectrum try overexposing by 1/2 to a full stop,for sunrise, sunsets, go with a little underexposure.I know this method helps me alot,also in direct sunlight thats on an object I will underexpose as well.Hope this helps!
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