# Taking pics and plants get another color



## Its me (Oct 21, 2004)

Hi,

I have a HP R707 5.1MP and i can take nice pics with it even with all in auto mode since im a complete disaster on photography.

Happens that everytime i try to take a pic to any of my tanks the upper leaves (wich obviously get more light) always appear yellow on pic; but they are green. Lower leaves appear with their normal color.

I have 216W hood with PC´s and T5 for a 53 gal tank (dunno if this will help or not).

Any recomendation, so i can take a pic and plants show the color they have ?

PS: the camera has tons of options available; i have tried to play around with it but no sucess at all (EV Compensation, White balance, ISO speed, AE metering, Adaptive Lighting, Color, Saturation, Sharpness, Contrast, AE Bracketing). I tried to mix all of this but heck.. always yellow leaves lol

Best Regards


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## T_om (Dec 23, 2004)

The problem you have is with white balance. 

Do you have an editing program that allows you to adjust the white balance of your pictures?

If so, you can take a picture under the existing tank lighting but including a photographic gray card in the shot. Remove the card for the next shot, the one you want to keep. When you process the image, use the shot done with the gray card to custom color balance the photo. Use these same setting (provided they were shot in the same light) and your color problems will go away. Auto white balance in most point and shoot digicams cannot handle aquarium lighting very well. Adjusting after the shot is easier.

Tom


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## turbomkt (Mar 31, 2004)

A lot of cameras will also let you shoot in RAW mode. You can then use Photoshop (expensive), Paint Shop Pro (reasonable) or the GIMP (Free but not as easy to set up) to adjust the white balance to your liking.


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## Its me (Oct 21, 2004)

Hi,

Thanks for the help so far 

I got it all, i just need to know what kind of grey card i should use; any size will do ok ?
I must tell anyway i have a black paper background on tank; dunno if that will already do the same as the card you have mentioned, or will modify the white balance.

Best Regards


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## ididit (Dec 13, 2004)

I would not use a gray card use a white card for balance. This will allow you to see any color cast. If you think about it, the white balance in your camera is just like what video guys have been facing for years. They always use a white card. However make sure it is pure white. Alot of white card can either have blue or yellow in them.

Any size card will work. Shoot on frame with the card and then take it out and balance.


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## gpodio (Feb 4, 2004)

If the bottom of the plants are coming out ok then white balance may be better than you think. It may simply be an overexposure problem such as in this badly exposed photo of mine:

http://www.gpodio.com/gallery/scene4.jpg

Try playing around with shutter speed and aperture and always try to underexpose your photos rather than overexposing them. A lot can be done with an underexposed photo but unfortunately very little can be done with an over exposed one.

For white balance I use a piece of white piece of plastic, anything white will work. If your camera can use stored images for custom white balance settings, you can store the white sample photo for later use, this way you can quickly set the white balance to any tank without having to retake the white frame. I have a small memory card just for this purpose and I store white balance frames for each of my tanks on it. But not all cameras work this way, some don't use stored images to set white balance meaning you have to set it each time.

Hope that helps
Giancarlo Podio


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