Help me with my new dslr, some pics have washed out colors.

[camille1585]

The light source is natural light, but at this time of year that usually means a cloudy day. But that's exactly how the 1st photo was taken too. I'll try changing the metering mode first, then try adding a desklamp behind a sheer curtain to get some warm colored light in. I also just discovered that I can set different 'picture styles' where I can choose a preset or create my own by customizing sharpness, contrast, saturation and color tone. For now I leave the RAW alone, I have don't really how to do anthing in the RAW editor, (the one that came with the camera - and I have photoshop at work).

Believe it or not, I HAVE read the manual cover to cover, but that was in the first week and there is so much info in it that I only remember a small amount of it! I did order a book off of amazon which is much better than the manual. It tells you exactly how to best use the camera's functions to achieve certain what you want. The reviews are pretty good: David Busch's Canon Eos Rebel T3I/600D Guide to Digital SLR Photograph

The next set of photos will have to wait until the weekend, since it's dark by the time I'm home from work. But I have been keeping busy indoors, taking more artistic pics like this in the kitchen sink (still a work in progress):

Kitchen sink art by Camille1585, on Flickr

For some reason I'm not getting any email notifications from Orchidboard anymore, so I was suprised to see so many replies here!

[tucker85]

Here are a couple of interesting web-sites about close up photography of small objects.

Beginning Orchid Photography: How to Get the Best Results | BH Insights

Old Mister Crow's guide to photographing bonsai and kusamono

[Call_Me_Bob]

Originally Posted by camille1585

The light source is natural light, but at this time of year that usually means a cloudy day. But that's exactly how the 1st photo was taken too. I'll try changing the metering mode first, then try adding a desklamp behind a sheer curtain to get some warm colored light in. I also just discovered that I can set different 'picture styles' where I can choose a preset or create my own by customizing sharpness, contrast, saturation and color tone. For now I leave the RAW alone, I have don't really how to do anthing in the RAW editor, (the one that came with the camera - and I have photoshop at work).

Believe it or not, I HAVE read the manual cover to cover, but that was in the first week and there is so much info in it that I only remember a small amount of it! I did order a book off of amazon which is much better than the manual. It tells you exactly how to best use the camera's functions to achieve certain what you want. The reviews are pretty good: David Busch's Canon Eos Rebel T3I/600D Guide to Digital SLR Photograph

The next set of photos will have to wait until the weekend, since it's dark by the time I'm home from work. But I have been keeping busy indoors, taking more artistic pics like this in the kitchen sink (still a work in progress):

Kitchen sink art by Camille1585, on Flickr

For some reason I'm not getting any email notifications from Orchidboard anymore, so I was suprised to see so many replies here!

Cool photo! And as your get better with photography (you're already quite good!) you should think about investing in Lightroom, it's like photographer's heaven!!


Yeah I stopped getting email notifications too I wonder why/

[camille1585]

I'll look into lightroom, as a PhD student I have access to software at reduced prices via the university. Hopefully lightroom is in there. Otherwise I think that I can get IT to install it on my work computer, our group has a licenses for many of the adobe products. I think saw that one of my colleagues (who's also a professional photographer in her spare time) has Lightroom on her computer.

By the way, I just saw the thread from Marty about a server move yesterday, and other people are not getting notifications since then. That's probably the problem.

[Call_Me_Bob]

Originally Posted by camille1585

I'll look into lightroom, as a PhD student I have access to software at reduced prices via the university. Hopefully lightroom is in there. Otherwise I think that I can get IT to install it on my work computer, our group has a licenses for many of the adobe products. I think saw that one of my colleagues (who's also a professional photographer in her spare time) has Lightroom on her computer.

By the way, I just saw the thread from Marty about a server move yesterday, and other people are not getting notifications since then. That's probably the problem.

Do it!!! It's so worth the investment! And it is setup in a way where you can import a group of pics and work on them separately or as a batch and export them together. But the best thing is, you don't have to save them! If your computer crashes, nothing is lost. You can work on some then come back later and tweak them again. It also have ad-ons where I can publish to flickr or smugmug directly form lightroom. It's awesome!

What are you getting your PhD in??!?!

[camille1585]

Plant-insect-pathogen interactions. Basically I'm looking at how attack by multiple insects/pathogens can affect a plant's ability to successfully defend itself against the primary insect attacker via the recruitment of natural enemies. Each attacker leads to a different odor 'signature' and natural enemies have learned how to exploit them. So I'm looking at odor composition and how they are modified, how the natural enemies respond, what genes and hormonal pathways are involved. In the long long run this sort of fundamental research should supply the knowledge help to create crops that defend themselves better.

[Call_Me_Bob]

Originally Posted by camille1585

Plant-insect-pathogen interactions. Basically I'm looking at how attack by multiple insects/pathogens can affect a plant's ability to successfully defend itself against the primary insect attacker via the recruitment of natural enemies. Each attacker leads to a different odor 'signature' and natural enemies have learned how to exploit them. So I'm looking at odor composition and how they are modified, how the natural enemies respond, what genes and hormonal pathways are involved. In the long long run this sort of fundamental research should supply the knowledge help to create crops that defend themselves better.

That's super super cool!!!

[silken]

Very nice sink photo Camille. Very creative!

[camille1585]

Good news, I think I solved the color problem! I went in late to work this morning, so took advantage of the morning light to take a few more shots. It wasn't a metering problem (spot metering actually led to underexposed photos). I had a deeper look at the photo styles after Silken mentioned she could change saturation and such in-camera. I'd only been playing with the preset styles, none of which actually change much other than brightness/contrast. So I created my own, bumped up saturation and color tone, and from I can see on the screen, the photos are much better!

Unfortunately I don't have a photo to post now, the battery died as I was trying to connect to the laptop. So it'll have to wait until this evening. I hope the pics are as nice as they seem.

[Call_Me_Bob]

Originally Posted by camille1585

Good news, I think I solved the color problem! I went in late to work this morning, so took advantage of the morning light to take a few more shots. It wasn't a metering problem (spot metering actually led to underexposed photos). I had a deeper look at the photo styles after Silken mentioned she could change saturation and such in-camera. I'd only been playing with the preset styles, none of which actually change much other than brightness/contrast. So I created my own, bumped up saturation and color tone, and from I can see on the screen, the photos are much better!

Unfortunately I don't have a photo to post now, the battery died as I was trying to connect to the laptop. So it'll have to wait until this evening. I hope the pics are as nice as they seem.

Hope it works for ya!