Odd color cast with new (used) lens.

eric-holmes · Aug 26, 2010

Some photos come out really odd looking. These are jpegs straight out of the camera. Nothing done to them. Any explanation?

BuS_RiDeR · Aug 26, 2010

eric-holmes said:
Some photos come out really odd looking. These are jpegs straight out of the camera. Nothing done to them. Any explanation?

Maybe its just me... But this just looks over-exposed to me... A simple adjustment of the white ballance can do a lot... It does look a bit "blue" too me but I thing that it the lighting and might be fixed in software as well...

BuS_RiDeR · Aug 26, 2010

oops double post... sorry.

PhotoSteve · Aug 26, 2010

Hi Eric,

First of all, the top image is overexposed. ISO was 640, with f 8 and 1/40. Shot at the same general time as the 2nd one, ISO 200, f 2.8, 1/100. Although your aperture was wider on the 2nd shot (which is very nicely exposed), there are much lower ISO and shutter speeds compared to the top one.

But you're right, there does seem to be a yellowish cast to both of them. It could very well be the optics. How old is this new "old" lens? I have seen old lenses get so yellow (can happen in 15 years or more) that they actually look off through the viewfinder.

The other possibility is that your cam has been switched to a manual or pre-set White Balance function. If it is set to correct for a different color temperature, it will give a different hue. However, this hue will change as your move to different types of light. I'd be willing to bet it's the old glass.

Derrel · Aug 26, 2010

THe top image is vastly overexposed: I opened it up the Levels dialogue...your black point sin all three channels are in the 60-point range, and the entire right hand side of the histogram is totally,totally slammed over in to the right hand side...just adjusting the black point made the top image look almost good.