Do we have a photography guru on site?

WOPL Sniffer

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#1
Question for the smart guys, I have a nice Canon G10 that I have been carrying for 10 years and it takes great pictures EXCEPT of the Black WOPL's with red lighting. Actually, my phone camera does the same thing when trying to take a picture of the red LED's in the meters. Is there a technique/filter/setting to help with that. I have a customer and I'm trying to explain that pictures in red light is a bitch to take. Here is a pic of what I'm talking bout. The picture looks just like the amp only different.........

HUH??? PLEASE, no "Red Light District" jokes :) I had the same problem when I built Roxanne... The amp was beautiful but the pics made it look funky.


amp1.jpg
amp1.jpg amp2.jpg
 

WOPL Sniffer

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#5
Funky is as funky does....

Try taking the pic from a low angle without flash.

If I get down on the floor I might be stuck there....... Yeah, I tried, Maybe a little better results but they were still not that great. Must be the funky wavelength of the red light
 

mlucitt

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#7
I had the same issue taking pictures in red lights at concerts, things would get blurry and washed out. My solution was to shoot in Black and White. The problem is in the cameras light measuring circuit, if there is mostly red light, the other color sensors (green and blue) are basically turned off.
You can open the aperture manually one more f-stop to get as much of the other colors to hit the meters as possible, but the only real solution is in post-processing.
 

Fishoz

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#9
If I get down on the floor I might be stuck there....... Yeah, I tried, Maybe a little better results but they were still not that great. Must be the funky wavelength of the red light
I was gonna suggest putting the amp higher but with your luck I suggest keeping anything heavy below eye level...
 

BlazeES

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#11
If you had the G10 set at auto, the ISO is probably already pretty high - the reason behind all the grain. Post processing will only help so much with contrast - as the grain will really pop out. (as you can see below...) The G10 is a great camera but it's sensor sucks when it comes to low-light resolution.

2901.JPG


Try taking the photos with some more light behind you that is bright enough to bring out the detail at a lower ISO and play around with the angle of that light to get the effect you're looking for.
 

BlazeES

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#14
Do you have a shop light or another smallish lamp you can place behind you off to the side? A touch of fill-light will do the trick.

(Oh - and don't zoom at all...)
 

WOPL Sniffer

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#15
Do you have light a shop light or another smallish lamp you can place behind you off to the side?

(Oh - and don't zoom at all...)
I can try that. I had Joe source some green LED's for the next 700B I do. I just made an offer on this beater on Ebay. Time to do one for me. This thig is FUGLY but the transformer and meters work so SCORE!!!!!

700B.jpg
 

Bob Boyer

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#17
Is the issue that the red color is not saturated enough, or is it too much, as your first two shots don't look bad to me. I kinda like the red light. But I don't know what you're looking at or what you're looking to accomplish. But first, I'd agree that your camera needs to come off of programmed exposure if that's how you're using it. IIRC from a G8, there is an exposure compensation dial on the top. Put the camera in aperture priority automatic, set it on a tripod, and, if you're shooting indoors, set the aperture wide open. Try a shot with the compensation dial set at 0, then begin adjusting it to add exposure in 2/3 stop increments (should be every two little white notches on the dial) and take another shot. I've generally found it takes +2/3 or +1 1/3 stop to open up the blacks.

Also, it looks from the centered white highlight that you're using a flash - try turning that off first and use the available room light. That will definitetly require some plus exposure compensation. (You can try angling a piece of white poster board in front of the amp to bounce ceiling light back up onto it. Just be sure the poster board stays out of the picture.)

If you're shooting color, filters of any kind will cause the entire photo to be whatever color the filter is, be it green or really dark red, which is the color of an infrared filter. Since a digital sensor sees color only, that won't work. There are a few cameras out there where the sensor and associated electronics have been modified to see only infrared light but that's usually only an option on some high priced pro cameras.

And finally, even with all that, post processing, as mentioned earlier, may be your only salvation.

Edit: one other thought. The digital exposure mantra is to expose for the highlights (in this case the red meters) and process for the shadows. Using a fill card (the big poster board angling light to the amp) will help decrease the exposure delta between those shadows and highlights, making the post-processing a bit easier.
 

J!m

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#18
In the old days, with film, we would bracket everything that we thought might be tricky. And this is clearly tricky.

Try a UV filter, as that can help, particularly with LEDs. Incandescent bulbs don't throw as much UV as LEDs do. That should help the sensor adapt to the "hot" red signal.

But you may also need a color filter as has been suggested. Once it is installed, you may also need to set a new white balance with the filter installed, and try again. Experiment.

Another idea is to take separate pictures (with a tripod) filtering for each primary color, and 're-mixing' them in the computer. Like the bracketing, it is not uncommon these days to take several pictures (my old digital body has auto-bracketing) and combining several frames to make one new one.

It may end up being one of those that you can't accurately capture.
 

Web Police

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#19
I

Another idea is to take separate pictures (with a tripod) filtering for each primary color, and 're-mixing' them in the computer. Like the bracketing, it is not uncommon these days to take several pictures (my old digital body has auto-bracketing) and combining several frames to make one new one.

It may end up being one of those that you can't accurately capture.
This is what we did at photo studio, or one image with proper lighting and a second and or third image without lighting to capture the meters, then sandwich them together.
 

WOPL Sniffer

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#20
This is what we did at photo studio, or one image with proper lighting and a second and or third image without lighting to capture the meters, then sandwich them together.

That shit is beyond me. As a matter of fact, I was looking to see if my camera spit picture out the bottom. Where can I buy film for my digital camera???
 
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