Shooting guitars, stupid color question. Don't hurt me.

[shortpants]

Hello friends and enemies, it's been a while! So I have a total newb question, color issue. I'm shooting guitars, this one in particular is a much brighter yellow and it comes out looking like a creamy beige. I probably shoot at least 5 a day and haven't noticed this problem until now. sRGB, auto WB, daylight didn't look any better. Manual exposure, I've bracketed and I'm not really editing these at all, shooting jpeg since I have to pop them up on eBay quickly and I don't even have any software anyway. I just do a quick contrast tweak with the uploader. Given that this is a big ticket item I'm spending more time on these. If I'm missing something obvious that someone could point out for me that would be great. I can't believe I'm posting in this forum!

 

[tirediron]

You've got yourself a white balance issue. The best way to deal with this if you don't have any editing software (Lightroom is only $150 - WELL worth the cost!) is to shoot a custom white balance using a tool like a Expo Disc (there are lots of others, this just happens to be the one I prefer).

Another contributing factor is likely your lighting. How are you lighting these? If the white balance tool doesn't work for you, invest in some daylight balanced bulbs and shoot at the colour temp. indicated on the package.

 

[cynicaster]

Either shoot in raw, which enables you to tweak the WB after the photo is taken, or research how to use a "custom white balance".

 

[ronlane]

Well, they have pretty much covered the wb issue. Now for the note on the guitar itself. Have Eddy to call Clapton when he wants a guitar lesson Or BB. lol

 

[shortpants]

Thanks guys! Will do the custom white balance. Yeah the whole editing issue is that there just really isn't time. On the plus side this is really teaching me to get everything as right as possible in camera. I'm a musician's personal assistant and he's also opening a brick and mortar store next month so things are nuts. When the store is open I'll have a much better setup in the back, we're going to get some lights and backdrops. Right now I'm shooting in an apartment, natural light. Not terrible because there's tons of windows but yes I'm looking forward to something a little more professional.

 

[amolitor]

Whose guitar is that?

 

[Derrel]

I do not think the white balance is the issue at all. The whites look very pure and uncontaminated. To correct the weak yellow rendering, I increased vibrance, made a minor exposure tweak, and de-saturated the red, which increased too much as a result of the elevation of the vibrance level. I used some "recovery" tool on the whites, to pull them back down. MUCH better, more-vivid yellows...I am not sure what color the guitar is in "real life", but this is what I think it might look like! Again, I made no white balance tweaks, at all in this edit. How close is this to IRL?

 

[tenthumbs]

Whose guitar is that?

Looks like Eddy Van Halen

 

[shortpants]

I do not think the white balance is the issue at all. The whites look very pure and uncontaminated. To correct the weak yellow rendering, I increased vibrance, made a minor exposure tweak, and de-saturated the red, which increased too much as a result of the elevation of the vibrance level. I used some "recovery" tool on the whites, to pull them back down. MUCH better, more-vivid yellows...I am not sure what color the guitar is in "real life", but this is what I think it might look like! Again, I made no white balance tweaks, at all in this edit. How close is this to IRL?

View attachment 55368

Not quite that bright yellow, somewhere in between yours and mine. And actually a quick color balance tweak fixed it, was a little on the cool side.

 

[raventepes]

Just a thought, since you don't have an editor, Corel has their new version of Paint Shop Pro X6 available here with a 30 day free trial. It isn't the fastest program in the world, but it's pretty solid, none the less.
The ultimate photo editor ? Corel PaintShop Pro X6 Ultimate

 

[amolitor]

Eddy signed it for someone named Steve. I assume it's Steve's guitar, and I assume shortpants is reluctant to name names

 

[DiskoJoe]

I do not think the white balance is the issue at all. The whites look very pure and uncontaminated. To correct the weak yellow rendering, I increased vibrance, made a minor exposure tweak, and de-saturated the red, which increased too much as a result of the elevation of the vibrance level. I used some "recovery" tool on the whites, to pull them back down. MUCH better, more-vivid yellows...I am not sure what color the guitar is in "real life", but this is what I think it might look like! Again, I made no white balance tweaks, at all in this edit. How close is this to IRL?

View attachment 55368

Not quite that bright yellow, somewhere in between yours and mine. And actually a quick color balance tweak fixed it, was a little on the cool side.

See there is time = ). Stop making excuses. Plus you could use Gimp or the free software flickr offers. Most photos dont need a whole lot of editing but the camera will never get everything perfect.

 

[hirejn]

White balance is not always the answer. Cameras record colors differently under different spectra of light. Oftentimes much color is lost in the file. You don't notice it until you see a profiled file next to an unprofiled one. Even with custom WB, colors are frequently off. Purples, blues, reds and yellows are frequently culprits. Also, different copies of the same model camera may record the exact same shot slightly differently.

A color profile can restore color to exactly what it should be under a given spectrum automatically. This is possible only when shooting RAW files and with the ColorChecker Passport profile system for Lightroom. The ColorChecker also guarantees perfect WB. You can't profile a JPEG. Perfect color is a combination of WB and profiling. They must work together. Anything else is just approximate, or it means incessant fiddling with sliders and settings.

 

[shortpants]

I do not think the white balance is the issue at all. The whites look very pure and uncontaminated. To correct the weak yellow rendering, I increased vibrance, made a minor exposure tweak, and de-saturated the red, which increased too much as a result of the elevation of the vibrance level. I used some "recovery" tool on the whites, to pull them back down. MUCH better, more-vivid yellows...I am not sure what color the guitar is in "real life", but this is what I think it might look like! Again, I made no white balance tweaks, at all in this edit. How close is this to IRL?

View attachment 55368

Not quite that bright yellow, somewhere in between yours and mine. And actually a quick color balance tweak fixed it, was a little on the cool side.

See there is time = ). Stop making excuses. Plus you could use Gimp or the free software flickr offers. Most photos dont need a whole lot of editing but the camera will never get everything perfect.

Ha no you don't understand, there really is no time. As a photographer yes I will take the time for editing, as a personal assistant and working this store I can't. There are not enough hours in the day. At all times I have a phone stuck to my ear, I'm negotiating deals, typing emails and texts on my phone at the same time while trying to shoot this stuff and get it listed lol it's insane.

 

[68Caddy]

Have to say I love how you avoid the question who's guitar it is.


Nesta