Displaying blue photos on the forum

[Michael G]

One of the problems that seems to reoccur on the forum is getting scraping photos to display the blue properly. I wondered the other day whether coloured filters might help - either blue to knock down the background or another colour to give a better contrast (make the blue darker).
We have a few photographers around - any thoughts?
(I'd try it out but don't want to buy filters if it will not work)

Michael

[BobL]

One of the problems that seems to reoccur on the forum is getting scraping photos to display the blue properly. I wondered the other day whether coloured filters might help - either blue to knock down the background or another colour to give a better contrast (make the blue darker).
We have a few photographers around - any thoughts?
(I'd try it out but don't want to buy filters if it will not work)
Michael

Blue is a tough colour for digital camera sensors to capture and display accurately.
The sensors are usually much more sensitive to the red end of the spectrum than the blue end.
You might be more successful by playing around with lighting than filters - have you tried photographing in daylight?

[FenceFurniture]

+1 for daylight Michael - hard to beat for realism and detail. It will depend on the subject as to whether overcast or strong sunlight is best If you are trying to show bare metal then overcast is probably more suitable, but for a blued surface sunlight may be the best.

Maybe you could post a pic that's giving you trouble?

[ian]

maybe there's no need to buy blue filters
my camera has a set of blue, red and green filters built in - you select them by menu options.

unfortunately I don't have access to bluing or a scraping sample, but perhaps black and white is an option

[Ueee]

Hi Michael,
I have had the same problem, i found for actually scraping that a cool white light helps the blue to be visible to the naked eye.
The best shot of a blued surface was in darker lighting, near one of the walls of the shed. I'll be sure to look at my camera settings next time i take a pic of any spotting.

Ew

[Metmachmad]

Judging by this subject name, "Displaying blue photos on the forum", I got excited and anticipated that I had found a seedier side to this forum, but alas, it has nothing to do with nakedness.

[.RC.]

Judging by this subject name, "Displaying blue photos on the forum", I got excited and anticipated that I had found a seedier side to this forum, but alas, it has nothing to do with nakedness.

You mean blue photo's like this topless one here -->> click here

[simonl]

Hi Michael,

another option maybe to use a polarising filter in sunlight. It may help reduce the reflected light from the metal and allow the blue to show up more or help reduce the contrast. Not sure whether a linear or circular polariser would work best though....

Just a thought..

Simon

[scottyd]

The problem may not be the camera at all, but the light youre using to illuminate the subject. Fluoro lights have pretty poor ranges of light, its one of the reasons theyre quite hard on the eyes. Someone mentioned sunlight, which is much better for light ranges.

Rather than changing bulbs for another type or colour, you could try shooting your photos in a raw format and adjusting the colour values in a good photography program like lightroom or photoshop. But then again, it requires a bit of learning and mucking around. Probably easier to just open the curtains.

[Anorak Bob]

Michael,

I deleted my earlier post because after reading the other replies, it was obvious I was missing the point. As Fence suggests, a photo illustrating your problem might help. Might also help me with my ability to comprehend.

Bob.

[Michael G]

A photo illustrating your problem might help.

I had thought of that but then realised a photo of something I can't photograph well may not help...

The issue I (and a number of others) have is that a photo of a (blue) spotted surface on a silver scraped surface does not show up well - The naked eye can usually pick up the blue but a camera seems to flatten it right out. Your pics were better Bob, but then they were continuous blue.

Attached is a photo from one of Richard's posts in the scraping projects thread -
20130309_214510.jpg

The blue is just discernible but something to make it stand out more in the photo (I think) would be good. As an added bonus, it could start a whole new range of eye wear. I already have a set of cheap eye glasses in the shed I refer to as my welding glasses (they are slightly more powerful than than my reading glasses for a bit of bonus magnification) - with the right filtering perhaps we can also have some scraping glasses for enhanced blue perception.

Michael

[FenceFurniture]

That particular pic appears to be taken on a phone camera with a very high ISO rating (sensitivity rating) hence the grain or "noise". Without wishing to pick on that photo, phone cameras don't often yield the desired result when it comes to detail.

It looks like there is a spot of sunlight coming through which may have fooled the light meter into an overall darker exposure.

[.RC.]

The blue is just discernible but something to make it stand out more in the photo (I think) would be good.

Yes the silver background washes out the blue...

I know nothing about cameras, but I think it is to do with the contrast ability of the camera...

Some newer cameras have the ability of High Dynamic Range... This may be the answer...

High-dynamic-range imaging - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Here is a an example from the above link that actually look sfake, due to it's vibrance..

FileDR image + 3 source pictures (Cerro Tronador, Argentina).jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[A Duke]

You mean blue photo's like this topless one here -->> click here

Nice box.

[FenceFurniture]

Yes, cameras don't see contrast the way we do. A red or yellow filter should darken up the blue parts. A polariser would not be my first choice, but would possibly be worth experimenting with. Even using tungsten light with the camera still set to daylight may show a benefit (in essence it would be a yellowish filter). Another option might be to put a yellow or red party light in a tungsten lamp, and again keep the camera set to daylight.

Metal always represents the biggest challenge in takng a well lit pic: if it's shiny/polished it will reflect whatever it sees, so point source light (i.e. on-camera flash) is useless as it results in a hot spot surrounded by darkness.

Brushed metal is easier as it can be placed on a white or pale grey backdrop and will usually pick up that, even if the face is at 90° to the backdrop (depending upon how satin finish the brushing is).

Sometimes you even have to go to the lengths of using angles of incidence/reflection: point the camera at the face of the metal at (say) 45° and have a white reflector at the other 45° angle, and the reflector itself may have to be lit so that it brings enough light back to the metal to be bounced back into the camera. That's why light tents work with metal pen parts - the metal can only reflect white because that's all it can see, even with a curved metal surface.