Brightlights and unnatural colours: A newbie problem.

I'm quite new to the DSLR game and I have not had this problem with my cheap point-and-shoot digital cameras. My main experience with cameras was with my old 70's Praktica SLR I used at college about 15 years ago (B+W only), so working with a DSLR in colour is a bit overwhelming for me. Anywho...

Whenever I take a photograph somewhere near something bright like the sky or reflecting something that is bright, I keep getting unnatural colours.

PhotoFail - an album on Flickr

[I don't know how to link the pictures directly, so I'll post the album]

Sometimes I can get the pictures I want, but most of the time they come out like this. Has anyone come across this problem, and have a fix for it? I've tried to alter some of the settings, but I have not accidentally corrected this error yet.

The camera is pretty much all on factory settings, taken in Auto.

Any recommendations will be greatly appreciated.

I've been mainly taking some continuous shots outdoors, so I'd rather fix this problem in-camera rather than spending hours retouching and filtering out this error out (although because of this problem, I've been getting better at "photoshoping").

Not sure what camera your using. Not really sure if it makes a difference but the yellow areas in the photos are blown out areas. Assuming you are familiar with this. Not sure why it's showing up in the actual image. Usually you can set this up so that reviewing an image on the rear screen blown out areas appear red. At least with my cameras.

I'm using the Nikon D3100. I can see the blowout on the preview after I take the pictures, but I am wondering what I can do to reduce it. A filter of some sort?

BlueRobotSocks said:

I'm using the Nikon D3100. I can see the blowout on the preview after I take the pictures, but I am wondering what I can do to reduce it. A filter of some sort?

Click to expand...

The easiest method is slightly underexposing and normalizing the shot in post. That's how you can save the blown out data that falls outside your dynamic range. You only have to take care you won't lose information at the other end. How much you underexpose depends on the circumstances when shooting and upon the post-processing capacities afterwards.

A 'neutral density" filter won't do much good since it not only affects the light.

That's pretty weird. Almost looks like some special effect gone awry. Maybe a filter intensifier setting? Or some kind of highlight setting wacked out maybe?

From the EXIF data, it looks like you're shooting in full "auto" modes?????

FredKingston said:

From the EXIF data, it looks like you're shooting in full "auto" modes?????

Click to expand...

Yes, the OP did say that this was the case. It should not yield results like this, unless the OP has some special effects turned on and doesn't know it.
I suggest a factory reset.

Wow... I've never seen anything quite like *that* before...

Clearly anything within the dynamic range of the camera is rendering properly but it appears any blown out highlight takes on a solid coloration.

Why, I have no idea; but that's what it looks like is happening to me.

EDIT: It *shouldn't* make any difference but... According the EXIF data, you're shooting in Adobe RGB. Most people would probably be using sRGB. Is there some reason you're shooting in Adobe RGB instead? Again, it shouldn't matter which color space you're using but the fact the camera has been set to aRGB makes me wonder if this isn't some kind of bizarre settings issue. A two-button reset is definitely in order.
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Horoscope Fish said:

EDIT: It *shouldn't* make any difference but... According the EXIF data, you're shooting in Adobe RGB. Most people would probably be using sRGB. Is there some reason you're shooting in Adobe RGB instead? Again, it shouldn't matter which color space you're using but the fact the camera has been set to aRGB makes me wonder if this isn't some kind of bizarre settings issue. A two-button reset is definitely in order.
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Click to expand...

I'm shooting aRGB all the time and I got plenty blown-outs but never that pretty. It's possible he only partially lost some channels. That would explain the color effects. But green usually pops up in shadow loss. Since highlight clipping is caused by full saturation, usually all is lost or nothing. Only in shadow clipping individual channels might suffer. I've seen it in shadows often, in highlights not really.

I've been playing a bit with the curves in the individual channels and, in my opinion, it's not simply (or only) highlight loss since there is data in the colors.



There's something strange going on and it shows at the right side of the histogram. There are some massive spikes but not identical for all three channels. ViewNX says no effects enabled. Unless they look like this on the cam's LCD, I'd gamble on something lost in translation.

Even when I up exposure to more clipping, the colors remain:



Btw, some reds do look strange too now.

The RGB channels:

J-see said:

I'm shooting aRGB all the time and I got plenty blown-outs but never that pretty. It's possible he only partially lost some channels. That would explain the color effects. But green usually pops up in shadow loss. Since highlight clipping is caused by full saturation, usually all is lost or nothing. Only in shadow clipping individual channels might suffer. I've seen it in shadows often, in highlights not really.

I've been playing a bit with the curves in the individual channels and, in my opinion, it's not simply (or only) highlight loss since there is data in the colors.

There's something strange going on and it shows at the right side of the histogram. There are some massive spikes but not identical for all three channels. ViewNX says no effects enabled. Unless they look like this on the cam's LCD, I'd gamble on something lost in translation.

Click to expand...

Based on this I'm starting to think it could be a problem with the Analog-Digital Converter or the sensor itself.
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Horoscope Fish said:

Wow... I've never seen anything quite like *that* before...

Clearly anything within the dynamic range of the camera is rendering properly but it appears any blown out highlight takes on a solid coloration.

Why, I have no idea; but that's what it looks like is happening to me.

EDIT: It *shouldn't* make any difference but... According the EXIF data, you're shooting in Adobe RGB. Most people would probably be using sRGB. Is there some reason you're shooting in Adobe RGB instead? Again, it shouldn't matter which color space you're using but the fact the camera has been set to aRGB makes me wonder if this isn't some kind of bizarre settings issue. A two-button reset is definitely in order.
.....

Click to expand...

Not to derail the thread, but I shoot aRGB as well. Not only that, but I also PP in aRGB until I save it in sRGB for uploading to the web. If I'm saving it to be printed then I save it aRGB.

Blacktop said:

Not to derail the thread, but I shoot aRGB as well. Not only that, but I also PP in aRGB until I save it in sRGB for uploading to the web. If I'm saving it to be printed then I save it aRGB.

Click to expand...

I do this as well...

And to reiterate... The color space *shouldn't* be making any difference but my thinking was/is: To be shooting in aRBG someone had to go in to the Settings menu and change the color space and that's a pretty "techy" sort of adjustment, don't you think? I mean, that's a bit different than say, bumping the Contrast setting in a Picture Control. It made me wonder what other sort of "techy" adjustments might have been made in conjunction.
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Horoscope Fish said:

I do this as well...

And to reiterate... The color space *shouldn't* be making any difference but my thinking was/is: To be shooting in aRBG someone had to go in to the Settings menu and change the color space and that's a pretty "techy" sort of adjustment, don't you think? I mean, that's a bit different than say, bumping the Contrast setting in a Picture Control. It made me wonder what other sort of "techy" adjustments might have been made in conjunction.
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Click to expand...

Even Nikon advises to shoot sRGB for JPEG and aRGB for further processing so there is probably more to it. Why else would they even mention it?

I assumed to would not matter at all but I decided that it won't hurt either.

I read it in this older note:

https://nikoneurope-en.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1452

A bit more info.

I did a bit of experimentation with the Exposure Compensation, manually altering it from+1 to 0 to -1 and lower. Moving to -1 or lower seemed to take the edge off the blowout.

I can see the blow outs on the LCD before the shots are taken (but I usually turn the screen off until the shot is taken to save battery).

From having a chat with a friend, and if I haven't crossed some neural wire, the camera lcd shows the blowouts but its not supposed to show on the end product. But in my case, it is.

The Adobe RGB thing was just to see if that was the cause of the problem (I do not think it is).

BlueRobotSocks said:

A bit more info.

I did a bit of experimentation with the Exposure Compensation, manually altering it from+1 to 0 to -1 and lower. Moving to -1 or lower seemed to take the edge off the blowout.

I can see the blow outs on the LCD before the shots are taken (but I usually turn the screen off until the shot is taken to save battery).

From having a chat with a friend, and if I haven't crossed some neural wire, the camera lcd shows the blowouts but its not supposed to show on the end product. But in my case, it is.

The Adobe RGB thing was just to see if that was the cause of the problem (I do not think it is).

Click to expand...

Do you get the exact same color blowouts from the RAW file? I would suspect some kind of filter effect that has been put in through menu that would affect the jpegs. Processing the raw files would prove this if it were the case.

BlueRobotSocks said:

A bit more info.

I did a bit of experimentation with the Exposure Compensation, manually altering it from+1 to 0 to -1 and lower. Moving to -1 or lower seemed to take the edge off the blowout.

I can see the blow outs on the LCD before the shots are taken (but I usually turn the screen off until the shot is taken to save battery).

From having a chat with a friend, and if I haven't crossed some neural wire, the camera lcd shows the blowouts but its not supposed to show on the end product. But in my case, it is.

The Adobe RGB thing was just to see if that was the cause of the problem (I do not think it is).

Click to expand...

Have you reset the settings for the camera in question yet? That suggestion has been floated a few times now and it needs to be done so we can positively rule out anything you may have done "experimentally" being the root-cause of this problem.

Since the D3100 has no two-button reset option you'll need to do the following:

To perform a reset you need to manually choose the reset option in the Shooting Menu and the Setup menu. To do this press 'Menu', select the Shooting Menu and scroll through the options until 'Reset Shooting Options' is highlighted, press ok, highlight 'Yes' and press ok again. Repeat this for the Setup menu.

Click to expand...

I think I am figuring this out, or at least, I think I am .

I have reset the camera as suggested and I have been trying to set off the blowouts by altering the Exposure Compensation and the ISO manually (with command dial set to S). Lowering the ISO and EC alleviates the problem with my current test conditions. I'll give it a go in daylight, when the time comes, but I think I may be on to something by dropping those settings. I have also been testing the video recording mode as well my tests react to that. It looks promising.

Maybe all I need to do is learn how to use the camera and all its functions...

Yours sincerely,
A. Newbie.

For the blowouts to take on color like that it is not caused by something you are doing. There is an equipment issue. You may find ways to work around it, but there is an equipment issue of some kind if they are coming out that way and you're doing nothing to the file - even if you were shooting in auto.

Moab Man said:

For the blowouts to take on color like that it is not caused by something you are doing. There is an equipment issue. You may find ways to work around it, but there is an equipment issue of some kind if they are coming out that way and you're doing nothing to the file - even if you were shooting in auto.

Click to expand...

I have to agree... I really can't imagine what setting, or combination of settings, would result in what those photos look like. I'm thinking there's a problem either with the Analog/Digital Converter or the camera's sensor itself.
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