Forums > Digital Art and Retouching > Red material looks Orange.

Photographer

FIFTYONE PHOTOGRAPHY

Posts: 6597

Uniontown, Pennsylvania, US

As the title suggests, from last evenings set My Models Red dress and accessories seem Orange,  Her Lips and Nails remain Red.

I shoot in RAW.

What causes this and how can I correct it? 

Any tips, pointers, advice appreciated.

Feb 23 19 07:18 am Link

Photographer

Shadow Dancer

Posts: 9775

Bellingham, Washington, US

Many fabrics and related clothing items have "brighteners" added to the coloring.
One way to test for their presence is to use a "black" light (ultraviolet) in a darkened room, most brighteners will "glow" under ultraviolet light. Your strobes may have significant ultraviolet energy.

Selective masking and reducing yellow may help improve your current images.
Somebody probably makes an ultraviolet filter material you could try for masking your strobes. It may cut some power but should at least improve the results.

Cheers,
Michael

Feb 23 19 08:29 am Link

Clothing Designer

GRMACK

Posts: 5436

Bakersfield, California, US

Best thing to do is to invest in a ColorChecker Passport and use it.  Make your own profiles for either Lightroom, DxO Photolab 2, etc.   That should get you closer overall.

You are probably shooting Adobe RGB and outputting to a sRGB source monitor or printer.  You lose colors doing that if they fall outside the colorspace.  Some colors are iridescent or have optical brighteners and will refuse to fit within a set colorspace.

I shot one of my threadracks the other day that had some reds and blues.  I know my Olympus Pen-F has a blue tendency, so I shot a ColorChecker Passport first (I was using flash too). and imported the profile into DxO Photolab 2 which gave me a better representation of the blues, and the reds look better as well.

https://www.mu-43.com/attachments/_2160005_dxo_dxo-2-jpg.719792/

I'm working on some scrub blue jay photo now and the file is Adobe RGB 1998 and shot that way with the camera, but some of the blue's of the bird fall outside the sRGB colorspace and will not be correct.  Some blues are okay, but it won't be an accurate representation printed so I have to live with it.  It really shows up with ColorThink Pro 3 software where you can load a 3D sRGB and then overlay the photo and see what blues I will lose.  If I could find a full Adobe RGB 1998 space printer it might get some back, but most printers are sRGB so it is what it is.

Feb 23 19 08:57 am Link

Photographer

Michael DBA Expressions

Posts: 3730

Lynchburg, Virginia, US

It does sound like UV fluorescence. If you shot under strobes, you need to know that they give off a lot of UV light, which can cause certain dyes and brighteners commonly used in fabrics to glow. When I bought my studio strobes, I got them with flash tubes coated to block that UV for this very reason. Check with ROSCO, who probably has a UV gel you can put over your lights. With regard to images already shot, the only thing you can do is make a selection and change the color in Photoshop, a pain, I know.

Feb 23 19 11:14 am Link

Photographer

E Thompson Photography

Posts: 719

Hyattsville, Maryland, US

If your using Lightroom or Capture One, you should be able to make a selection and adjust colors there.

Feb 23 19 11:30 am Link

Retoucher

WSC

Posts: 81

Albuquerque, New Mexico, US

If you shoot in raw, why asking? Change to whatever color you want.

Feb 23 19 04:08 pm Link

Photographer

Motordrive Photography

Posts: 7087

Lodi, California, US

FIFTYONE PHOTOGRAPHY wrote:
I shoot in RAW.

then, there's no problem

What causes this and how can I correct it?

I don't know, I haven't seen the files, but 90% of the time, it's a white balance issue.
In Lightroom or ACR, start with color profile (I stick with Adobe Standard) then eyedropper
custom white balance, if the reds are not to your liking, go to H/S/L panel and adjust.

Any tips, pointers, advice appreciated.

my day job is shooting and printing youth sports, I've never had any problems with reds.
on the other hand, a few soccer teams have neon green jerseys, those go out gamut
most of the time, so I just made a preset for colors not found in "nature".

Feb 23 19 09:13 pm Link

Retoucher

fireshoot

Posts: 100

Naples, Campania, Italy

if you post the images with the problem you could better understand what to suggest as a solution.

Feb 25 19 06:42 am Link

Photographer

Downtown Pro Photo

Posts: 1606

Crystal Lake, Illinois, US

brighteners in fabrics can cause this, they are designed to be seen by the eye and not a sensor.  I once had a guy in a dark blue blazer that photographed bright green, everyone else in the shot had the same color outfit in the capture.  The synthetic fabric combined with brighteners made his jacket go way different.
Same thing can happen with make up designed for the work environment.  Coloring in it can be meant to compensate for being under florescent light and when you put it under full spectrum you will see a strong cast, so the face and arms will be different colors.

Feb 25 19 08:41 am Link