Capturing purple in item photos

[Former_Member]

Does anyone have any tips on photographing purple? I have a purplish/mauve item and no matter what setting I use my camera turns it blue. I've taken the photos outside in natural daylight. Even playing with colour in Gimp makes no difference, it remains a bright blue.

[lifeartdesigns]

I've had that problem sometimes, and the only thing that seemed to work for me was to change the background color a little. You're photos are already great, so I'm assuming you've already tried playing with the white balance on your camera. Sometimes I have also put something with a contrasting color (or black) next to it, but separated enough that I can edit it out of the photo afterwards.

[Former_Member]

Hi lifeart, Yes I've adjusted the white balance and other settings and also tried different coloured backgrounds, white, cream and pale grey, but it still comes out blue.

I tried Googling the problem and someone on Flickr was asking the same question. He seemed to think it was modern digital cameras that were to blame. He showed two photos of his purple car, one taken with his old camera that captured the purple perfectly, and one taken with his new camera that was more bluish, and he'd tried three different digital cameras all with the same blue result.

Thanks for the tip about placing a black item next to it, I'll try that. Failing that I will just have to make a note in the description that the flower is in fact purple not blue.

It's a colour I mixed from polymer clay... *makes note to self* use blue in future! :)

[Former_Member]

Actually I've just uploaded them to Flickr to see what they look like. The one on the pale background isn't too bad. But the one against my green top is definitely blue.

You can see them here. Would be interesting to know what they look like on other people's monitors.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chameleonite/5428167568/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chameleonite/5428171796/in/photostream/

[lifeartdesigns]

The last time I had that problem, it was with a purple polymer clay flower cane I made. It kept looking blue no matter what I did. Now I wonder if maybe it is the shade of purple we are working with...

[Former_Member]

Ah that's interesting! You might have a point there. Possibly the shade, or it might even be the way polymer clay reflects light?

[lifeartdesigns]

I'm thinking it's a background color problem. I looked and one looks purple and one looks blue as blue can be! The one with the white background looks purple and the green center color pops better.

[Former_Member]

Your work is lovely! I must learn how to make canes. I've checked out a few tutorials but my brain doesn't seem to be wired right. I can't seem to picture how it's all put together. A bit like trying to write backwards so it looks the right way round in a mirror... well that's the nearest I can get to describing the difficulty I have. I'd love to make veined petal canes to make flowers out of it.

[Former_Member]

Yes I was surprised how the green popped more with the white background. The reason I wore that top was to make the centre pop, but it had the opposite effect. The centre is a vivid lime green, as is the top. But the green top not only makes the flower blue, but it mutes the green centre. I will try it against a black top.

[lifeartdesigns]

I was just wondering myself about black.
Thanks for the compliment. You have some awesome work in your Flickr! I just love your sculpted rose bracelets!

Canes are bit like working backwards to me! Not that hard though, just takes practice. Getting the veins is just a matter of slicing each petal lengthwise, then adding in thin sheets of another color.

[Former_Member]

Sorry, my friend came round for coffee. I'll have to read up on canes, I'd really like to be able to make them as it will add so much more to my pieces than plain colours.

[UniqueDichroic]

Yes I have the same problem with some shades of purple...it just doesn't look right.
There's one particular pendant that I make that I actually say in the listing that my camera cannot capture the true color, and that it really is a very nice shade of purple.

[lifeartdesigns]

Chameleonite, off to go do some work, but if you ever want any help with making your own canes, feel free to convo me any time. But, by looking at your work, I think you'll be fine, lol. Or, if you decide not to mess with it and want to shop for some, I have a cane shop at AF. "mypolymerclaycanes". Very reasonable.
Happy claying!

[Former_Member]

Yes Unique, I think I may have to resort to adding a note about the colour if I can't get it to look more purple.

[Former_Member]

Thanks for your help Lifeart, and also for the link. I might just have to buy some to be going on with until I learn how to make them myself. I did try once and wasted so much clay that when reblended just ended up mud coloured.

[Former_Member]

I've had this problem with shades of purple and even shades of bright fuchsia pink. It's an issue with digital cameras... the better the lens, the better it will capture color. When I use a 50 mm lens it's so much better at correctly replicating colors.

Sure, photographing on different colored backgrounds may help, but it may not. I have never played around with Gimp before, but I've heard it's similar to Photoshop in some ways. So, here's how I remedy the situation in Photoshop. Hopefully this will help you figure out how to fix it in Gimp:

Open the image. Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation

Now it will give you an option to adjust the hues in your image. You can adjust the colors in your image using sliders for Hue, Saturation, and Lightness. The default option is "Master"... which means it will adjust ALL of the colors. What I do is change the default selection to whatever color I'm targeting. Photoshop will give you these options: Reds, Yellows, Greens, Cyans, Blues, Magenta.

For problems with purples Magentas and Blues sometimes need tweaking. My problem with Fuchsia needed tweaking in the Reds (I had to lower the saturation and slide the scale to make the reds more pink-y). Just play around with the hues.

Hopefully this helps!

[Former_Member]

Also... I would be happy to tinker with the image of your flower to see if I can help you out. Just convo me the photo. :)

[Former_Member]

Just letting you know, of the two links you posted, the one on the green background is definitely blue, and the other is a pale purple on my monitor. That's incredible - I would have thought they were two different flowers!

[lifeartdesigns]

Wow snookums, thanks for the photo shop tut!

[Former_Member]

I've had a similar problem but in reverse - my photos of REAL flowers that were intense ultramarine blue would come out pinkish purple, while all the background leaves etc. would be perfect, no matter what I did to the light settings and white balance on my camera. So bizarre. I wondered if maybe it was an infrared thing.

Anyway, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who's had that anomaly.

[Former_Member]

Snookums - thanks for the help. Gimp is very similar to Photoshop in that you can adjust the hue saturation. I've tried and better tried sliding the blue and magenta, lightening and darkening, upping and lowering, all to no effect.

Please feel free to tinker with it and see if you can improve it for me. I'll convo it to you. :)

[Former_Member]

Is this, by any chance, the actual color of the flower? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periwinkle_(color)

Many people (who may or may not actually have a very slight case of color blindness) see periwinkle as blue, and many will say it's purple. Sometimes issues with blue/purple are not in the item itself but in the viewer. Anyways, all this to say that even when/if you do correct the color of the photo you will probably STILL need to clarify what the color is in the description. :)

Yes, please send the pic. I am sick today and totally wasting time on the computer. :)

[Former_Member]

It is similar but darker, more of a purple. I would say the Periwinkle in that photo is blue.

[Former_Member]

Oh and I hope you're feeling better soon. :)

[Former_Member]

Thanks everyone for your feedback.

Honeyandbee, maybe we should swap cameras! :)