Thanks Bob.

It's a Pentax K100D Super. Set at the max of 6 MP.

Will post a crop later. Will also do some shots in RAW and with ambient light just for interest.

Yesterday I used a Lumix with the same light setup; same problem.

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Cheers, Ern
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'For the great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie — deliberate, contrived, and dishonest — but the myth — persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.' J.F. Kennedy, 1962

Ern, I think you will find that shooting RAW files will be the partial answer to the colour cast issues. When adjusting the 'tone' setting you should be able to remove the cast.
All the best
Kevin

Kevin, the camera offers 'bright' and 'normal' and I've been using normal. Is that what you meant? Or in post-processing?

..

I took some shots in RAW. The best colour cast came with light from a shaded side window through the side of the tent and auto white balance but the shot was still very contrasty despite this being set to lowest. I think a bit of chatoyance in the timber is contributing to this. I can reduce it a bit on the PC and playing with hues helps but it still ends up an unrealistic representation.

Crop attached Bob.

Attached Images

BE crop.jpg (61.4 KB, 34 views)

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Cheers, Ern
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'For the great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie — deliberate, contrived, and dishonest — but the myth — persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.' J.F. Kennedy, 1962

Hi Ern, It would be in post.
Here is a screen shot of the Photoshop settings that come up when I open a RAW file. Move the temperature to get close to the colour balance you like and fine tune with the tint settings. This is just a basic starting point. Longer exposures, >5 secs, introduce some interesting colour casts.
As for getting it right at the source its tuff to get it 100% correct unless you use a colour meter reading and calibrate the camera white balance to that reading(I'm not sure your pentax allows for this?). It will take in the ambiant light, the colour bias of your light source and the colour cast created by the reflected light off the light tent. Get as close as you can at the source and fix it in post. Every lens adds its on own colour cast, every screen does the same and every print media adds to the mix.

Attached Images

Photoshop_RAW_Box.png (18.6 KB, 157 views)

Thanks Kev.

I used the RAW manipulation s/w that came with the camera which is a bit limited. PS needs a mod to handle Pentax RAW so I'll try and do that.

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Cheers, Ern
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'For the great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie — deliberate, contrived, and dishonest — but the myth — persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.' J.F. Kennedy, 1962

I've just started using PS on RAW files with my new camera, and think that a lot of people's problems with color could arise due to not having their screens calibrated correctly.

What you see on the screen is not necessarily the correct colors as recorded by the sensor, and needs to be calibrated against a known standard color chart. Only then will the visual adjustments you make in PS be correct.

To calibrate a screen, you display the known color chart (electronic), then hold a sensor over the different colors. The software will tell you what adjustments are needed to get correct calibration. I have 2 monitors on my computer, and there is a vast difference between the rendition of the same photo on the 2 screens.

Now saving up to buy a calibrator (wouldn't mind sharing the cost & equipment with another user cos you don't need to do the calibration very often.

Allan, I have a Spyder2express you're welcome to borrow.

Review: http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/r...r2express.html

You also need a decent monitor it should go without saying.

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Cheers, Ern
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'For the great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie — deliberate, contrived, and dishonest — but the myth — persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.' J.F. Kennedy, 1962

That's great, thanks for the offer Ern. Current LCD monitors are fairly old and nothing special. I'm looking at upgrading later in the year so might take up your generous offer then (though this might bring the upgrade forward a bit).