Flower pic problems
Belton1
I just got some 4x6 prints from qualex back. Kodak paper, Kodak gold 100 film.
Kodak Retina ReflexIII. Some of the pics were very good, indoor still life
stuff. However, I took some flower pics. It was sunset time and the light was
pretty yellow. The flowers, Lupines, are purple. The color looked nasty, kind
of washed out and yellow. I used an 85mm Schneider lens and the Kodak close up
set made for the Retina. What am I doing wrong? Do I need a color correcting
filter at that time of day? Should I use a gray card for this kind of lighting?
I was pretty disapointed, as I thought some prize winners were coming and all I
got were dogs. Woof!
Deirdre Wiseman
Belton1,
Two things probably happened here. One is the ageratum effect where
some blue and purple flowers just don't record on film the way they look
to the human eye. This alone usually causes a washed out look with a
lack of color in the flowers. Filters can help you get close to the
original color, but usually at the expense of different colors in the
photo. The other is that purple and blue flowers usually look best on
overcast days and usually don't look that good in the yellow light of
late afternoon sunlight as the colors oppose themselves.
Archy E. Wiseman
Ron Ginsberg
The flowers (as any other surface) can only throw back to the film from
the spectrum of the light source directed at them. If the light is warm,
then the "cool" source of the iluminating spectrum is minimal and the
cool colored surfaces have little to reflect. I would suspect that in
this case the light was behind the camera and we were seeing surface
shine reflected light. By shooting at an angle offset from the sun's
illumination and using a Polaroid filter, that part of the color
reflected by the surface "shine" might be reduced and let embedded
flower colors show through
As the previous poster stated, light overcast days are frequently best
to reduce contrast and provide the eveness of illumination.
In addition, with the lens accessories indicated, I wonder if there was
enough intense light reflected back to cause flare problems.
Jeffrey Karp
Try using Reala next time. I shot many flowers with Reala, and the colors
look great! Perhaps you underexposed the film? How do the negatives
look? Perhaps using a small relector next time might help. The Kodak
diopters also may not be such great quality. Many people advise
using only the 2 element ones made by Canon, Nikon, or Minolta.