Well, I finally made some time to do a little photography research. I was able to check into why the photos I take don't always accurately reflect the color of the object I am photographing. It has to do with the camera settings and the type of light I am using when taking pictures.
Different types of light (incandescent, fluorescent, sunlight, flash, etc.) create a different types of warmth or coolness of the image. This difference is called white balance. Your eye can see the differences, but the calibration on the camera may not always be able to do so (as most cameras are either set to "auto" white balance or have no ability to have adjustments made).
So, the stuff I read (on-line, many different resources) suggested changing the white balance settings based on the light I am using. As I am using fluorescent bulbs in my photo tent, I thought I would try the fluorescent bulb setting. Unfortunately, it was WAY wrong:
Even with some adjustments in Adobe Lightroom, this photo appears washed out and the color is too blue. For comparison's sake, here is one of my earlier posted shots of The Platinum Rule:
In my mind, this last shot is better, but still wrong in color (way too blue, definitely not enough purple).
So, I tried the other settings, all with the same result except for the "flash" setting. That one got me much closer to the actual color. Funny, too, because when I selected the "flash" setting, the flash didn't flash when I took the pictures. So odd.
Here are the photos (with some adjusting done in Adobe Lightroom):
These are much better in that the color of the piece is much truer to what it actually is in real life (it is darker than this, but the piece is closer to the purple color it really is). However, I don't like the background color now. In the earlier two pictures, the background is a much truer white (and definitely "right" in color, as the background is a bright white). Now, because of the adjustments I made in Lightroom, the background is now more pink. Eewww.
So, I'm still not quite where I need to be. The white balance setting helped the piece itself, but in fine-tuning the image, I couldn't get the piece AND the background both to look right. And just to give you some perspective, here's a completely untouched photo with only the white balance adjustment done through the camera:
It is still too blue. I am, too, after looking at all of these and still not having an answer. :-(
I think more research is necessary. Also, a break is necessary. All this adjusting makes my brain hurt! :-)
Stayed tuned for more, folks! Until then, go outside and take pictures...the colors turn out much better in the natural light! :-)
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