Saturday, May 15, 2010

Trouble With Color

I'm not a photographer. But you probably already knew that.

I need to take photos of products in order to sell them online, but truthfully, it's pure blind luck that I'm able to get any photos to turn out the way they're supposed to.

Anyway, my biggest issue is color. This photo was taken yesterday and required absolutely NO editing. It was perfect right off the camera.


This picture was taken with the same camera, on the same day, with the same settings. But the skein isn't really blue. It's turquoise and a purple-ish deep navy blue.



No turquoise to be found. And tweaking in PhotoShop isn't really helping. Though, admittedly, I know less about PhotoShop than I know about photography.

This photo was taken several months ago and shares some of the same colors.



That's the turquoise color the other picture is missing. Though my blue skein is almost entirely that color and it's quite vibrant. And that darker shade? Just about right too. The first yarn just doesn't have any green in it. Grrrrr.....why can I get colors to work some days and not others? Do I need a whole new photo shoot? Can I fix it in PhotoShop? I have no idea. I just know it isn't happening tonight.

Thanks for letting me vent. I do feel better. And if anyone has any advice, links to tutorials, YouTube videos that address this issue, etc. please feel free to speak up.

Oh and that first gold skein? It's available for sale in my shop. You know, if you were coveting....

4 comments:

Thea said...

I have that problem with my pics too. It's very annoying. Turquoise or not, the skeins are lovely!

Emily/Knit Addictions said...

I always have problems getting colors to come out right in my pics. It's very annoying and I am so limited in my knowledge of photography that I don't know how to fix it. That said...one thing I have noticed from ordering yarn online, it hardly ever ends up being the color I thought it was when I looked at it on my computer. Which means that even if it was true to color when photo'd, it isn't on my monitor. So there is always something that will work against you and I guess you have to decide when it's good enuf!

Margo said...

It can definitely be hard! If I have problems with photographing an item, I'll just try again another day or in another light.
I think the colors look great!

Michael Mendolia said...

JL,

You are using a Digital Camera with additive color adaptation, you would have the reverse problem (greens and reds wouldn't show up as well) in subtractive adaptation (like an analog camera).

With a digital camera (or scanner, sorry analog photo's scanned won't help) you will get 'purer' Reds, Greens, and Blues; and our eyes are set up for CMYK. The translation is hard. You CAN adjust them in Photoshop, but it isn't a novice correction, and it isn't automatic.

In photoshop you need to add layers or adjust colors until the color on your screen matches that of the yarn, it is a pain. Something else that helps is if your camera has the choice to use 'automatic settings' or 'manual settings' don't let it help you.

Using the manual settings will mean more time taking pictures to get a good 'picture' but the colors won't be 'adjusted' as much for you.