Having trouble with red

LRussoPhoto

I have been trouble with shooting red's. For some reason they always look so dull! These shoots were taken within 45 minutes of each other and the red looks awful, why? I understand that the light changes but I was shooting in A mode and alwys keep checking to make sure my ss isnt dropping too low. For some reason its only with red things.

donek

It's your white balance. I shoot Nikon and rarely like anything that the cameras produce when set to Auto WB. Outdoors, I almost always use the cloudy WB. It will make you colors pop more. You can of course try setting it manually. Unless you are trying to match colors perfectly, you'll find the cloudy WB will do what you are looking to achieve. You can also shoot raw and then play with the WB settings in post. You'll need to change the WB settings when your lighting changes from outdoors to anything else though.

LRussoPhoto

Thanks for the advise, I will give it a try. But wont the cloudy white balance make everything look to orange?

donek

QuadRacer041 wrote: »

Thanks for the advise, I will give it a try. But wont the cloudy white balance make everything look to orange?

Take a look at these posts. All of them are shot with a cloudy WB. Let me know if you think they look orange.
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=199342
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=201310
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=201309

LRussoPhoto

Lol, no they dont. I usually shoot at +1 saturation as recommended by someone else. Could that be the reason my photos would look a little orange when shooting with cloudy white balance?

Jeffro

Have you ever tried metering off the grass or dirt and setting your f-stop and shutter speed manually and leaving it there? Even in Av the meter will read the colors of each quad / rider and cause things to change from shot to shot. If the light remains consistent going manual could help as well.

LRussoPhoto

Jeffro wrote: »

Have you ever tried metering off the grass or dirt and setting your f-stop and shutter speed manually and leaving it there? Even in Av the meter will read the colors of each quad / rider and cause things to change from shot to shot. If the light remains consistent going manual could help as well.

I have not tried that yet. I'm fairly new at this and although I have shot in manual when doing landscapes and still things, never tried it when shooting action. My concern is and I maybe totally wrong is this: after I set up my exposure being that the subject is always moving and photos are not always taken in the same exact spot each time. Wouldn't just moving the shot in anyplace but where the original exposure was set up result in an inncorrect exposure?

Jeffro

QuadRacer041 wrote: »

Wouldn't just moving the shot in anyplace but where the original exposure was set up result in an inncorrect exposure?

That's why I mentioned "As long as the lighting stays consistent". I've shot soccer with manual settings, taking a meter reading off the grass. It worked pretty darn good. There have been times that when shooting in Av that the metering was off, due to a white jersey entering the picture for instance. This doesn't happen with the M setting. If clouds rolled in I just took a new meter reading and set things there, not that big of deal really. I was a bit apprehensive about trying it too.

Taking a meter reading and setting the camera for your current lighting isn't really all that hard, try it, it's digital, it's not like it's going to cost you film or anything.

LRussoPhoto

Jeffro wrote: »

That's why I mentioned "As long as the lighting stays consistent". I've shot soccer with manual settings, taking a meter reading off the grass. It worked pretty darn good. There have been times that when shooting in Av that the metering was off, due to a white jersey entering the picture for instance. This doesn't happen with the M setting. If clouds rolled in I just took a new meter reading and set things there, not that big of deal really. I was a bit apprehensive about trying it too.

Taking a meter reading and setting the camera for your current lighting isn't really all that hard, try it, it's digital, it's not like it's going to cost you film or anything.

When I mentioned moving around I don't mean 180* in the oppisite direction or 4 hours later, I mean in a sweeping berm for instance say I take the meter reading in the middle of the berm off the dirt and set up my av and tv, but when I take the photo it is at the end of the berm at a slightly differant angle to the sun, will that totally change the exposure?
I know its not hard to do, I just figured that leaving it in av mode gives me more range with the camera instead of being locked into one certain area for x amount of time.
As I said I will give it a try.

donek

QuadRacer041 wrote: »

Lol, no they dont. I usually shoot at +1 saturation as recommended by someone else. Could that be the reason my photos would look a little orange when shooting with cloudy white balance?

It's possible. I wouldn't mess with settings like contrast or saturation in camera as they can easily be adjust in post processing. I'd set that back to the default and work with your WB.

QuadRacer041 wrote: »

When I mentioned moving around I don't mean 180* in the oppisite direction or 4 hours later, I mean in a sweeping berm for instance say I take the meter reading in the middle of the berm off the dirt and set up my av and tv, but when I take the photo it is at the end of the berm at a slightly differant angle to the sun, will that totally change the exposure?
I know its not hard to do, I just figured that leaving it in av mode gives me more range with the camera instead of being locked into one certain area for x amount of time.
As I said I will give it a try.

You're far better off shooting manual. As long as you're in a similar general direction and your subject isn't moving in and out of shadows, your exposure isn't going to change. Every time I shoot something other tham manual these days, I wind up regretting it. The whole point of an SLR is the ability to take control rather than let the camera control you. Once you start taking control, you'll learn faster and get better images.

Jeffro

QuadRacer041 wrote: »

When I mentioned moving around I don't mean 180* in the oppisite direction or 4 hours later, I mean in a sweeping berm for instance say I take the meter reading in the middle of the berm off the dirt and set up my av and tv, but when I take the photo it is at the end of the berm at a slightly differant angle to the sun, will that totally change the exposure?
I know its not hard to do, I just figured that leaving it in av mode gives me more range with the camera instead of being locked into one certain area for x amount of time.
As I said I will give it a try.

I don't really think the light will change all that much as you pan a berm, unless half of it is covered by shade. I've seen the metering change more in MX because of the meter reading the white number plate (causing an under exposure). than from the variance in lighting on a small section of track.

Try some different techniques during practice the next time you're out at the track, then compare those to the shots you took in Av mode.

Jeffro

Do you ever use your flash at the track? It can really help give the pic some pop too. I shot this photo in Av, a while back, but used my external flash to get rid of shadows and give it that pop.

LRussoPhoto

Yea, I'll be at Southwick for a race this weekend and ill try some manual shots during practice. Yes I have used a flash before to fill some shadows, works well just hate caring the stupid thing around on real hot days. The less i have to carry the better, lol.

zoomer

Levels adjustment, get your white and black points correct, small boost in saturation and contrast. That should make the reds pop. I would stay away from the cloudy wb, use auto wb adjust if necessary.

Jeffro

QuadRacer041 wrote: »

Yea, I'll be at Southwick for a race this weekend and ill try some manual shots during practice. Yes I have used a flash before to fill some shadows, works well just hate caring the stupid thing around on real hot days. The less i have to carry the better, lol.

I hear ya, lugging around a dSLR with a 70-200L f/2.8 and a flash as you walk around the track, moto after moto, is quite the work out.