Blue outline?

Dagwood56 · Jan 10, 2009

Okay, here we go again. As I've mentioned, right now I can't upload any photos, but this is easy enough to explain. Yesterday afternoon it was an overcast sky and I saw a hawk sitting quite brazenly in a tree along our property. I grabbed my camera and went outside and snapped off several shots. Blurr this time was not the issue, but when I got them into photo shop almost all of the 26 shots i took had this garish blue outline around everything! The tree limbs and the hawk. What in the world causes that?
I also took two shots of my cats in the weeds before I came inside and they turned out okay.

The camera [Sony100] was set on program, auto ISO and the apeture was what it always seems to be with the 70-210 lens, 5.6. To be honest I forget what the ISO and shutter speed were coming up as because I was in a hurry, it was cold and mainly I was just tyring to scare the hawk away [and get some photos in the process] so it didn't make lunch of one of my kittens.

Do all of you always use the built in flash? I don't usually use it outdoors - maybe I should? And I'm still wondering if the in camera processing {DR feature in the Sony} might be better turned off. You're all always talking about shooting in Raw, which I don't, I shoot in jpeg fine Large:10. Its a storage issue - only can afford one memory card and only get out once a week if lucky so like to make the most of it. This DR feature only works in jpeg shooting....do you think it would be better to turn it off? Would it give me more leeway in photoshop to correct any problems?

I have never had this much trouble with a camera before! I have reset my ISO to 200 and next time out I plan to use my 35-70 lens, [f4-22], though its really not any faster than the 70-210 [4.5 -5.6] Maybe I would get better results with my 50mm lens [1.7 - 22]. I know I'm rusty at all this, its been a long time since I used an [D]SLR camera, but I really didn't think my skills were that rusty:blushing:

Thanks

ksmattfish · Jan 10, 2009

It's called chromatic aberration (CA) or sometimes purple fringing. It's usually seen along high contrast edges, and can be caused by both the lens and sensor. Photoshop and other photo editing software usually has options for reducing/eliminating CA.

Google it for more info on controlling it, getting rid of it, etc...

Dagwood56 · Jan 10, 2009

Thank you.

AlexColeman · Jan 10, 2009

Yes, CA is a problem in high contrast scenes. Your best bet would be a free trial of DXO Optics Pro.DxO Optics Pro - Exclusive Features - Overview It automatically corrects lens and camera issues such as distortion,CA, and vignetting. Just be sure you have a good enough computer, it is intenisve.