# Photographing pastels



## cretzlaff (Dec 18, 2017)

In my photos of my pastels the under painting is distractingly apparent, much more so than in the paintings themselves. I am using a digital camera on a tripod in natural light. Any thoughts on what I am doing wrong?


----------



## Rrr (Dec 9, 2017)

Hi cretzlaff,

Why not introduce yourself in the introduction forum..

Regards


----------



## Rrr (Dec 9, 2017)

cretzlaff said:


> In my photos of my pastels the under painting is distractingly apparent, much more so than in the paintings themselves. I am using a digital camera on a tripod in natural light. Any thoughts on what I am doing wrong?


Can you show an example with a description about the difference from the real painting? I'm also curious about the particular camera you are using, the brand and model (and if you are using it manually or using a predefined cameramode).


----------



## cretzlaff (Dec 18, 2017)

As you can see from this image the violet underpainting can be seen clearly in the middle distance land mass, and as points of light in the large dark shrubbery mass. In the actual painting none of these are visible. My camera is an Olympus Tough and I am taking photos close to an open window using automatic settings for cloudy day, ISO 200, landscape.


----------



## Rrr (Dec 9, 2017)

Since its an Olympus camera and probably manufactured in 2015 or later its my best guess the camera has a polarizing-filter built in which the camera uses in predefined modes. Olympus patented that technology in 2015 and what it does is suppressing glare from surfaces enabling one to see past such glare and reflections.

In effect this could mean that your camera is seeing past the toplayer(s), omitting them sorta as they are thin (transparency factor) and reflect enough light to give the pola-filter a job.

I dont know the menu of this particular camera but it might be possible to turn that filter off if your camera indeed has one built in, or that it doesnt make use of such a filter when other modes are in use/or when used manually. I suggest you check it first in the menu and experiment with the camera manually.


----------



## Rrr (Dec 9, 2017)

I really like this painting by the way.


----------



## cretzlaff (Dec 18, 2017)

Thanks Rrr. When the Christmas activity burst is over I will go through my camera manual ... your suggestion is one I certainly would never have thought of.


----------



## bluepen61 (Jan 19, 2017)

I would suggest placing your camera in either Manual mode or Program/Automatic mode. Landscape, portrait, and other scene modes will tweak the colors more that just operating your camera in a Manual or Program mode.

I have an old Canon 40D. The Manual mode requires the photographer to set the exposure setting of aperture and shutter speed, just like the cameras of way old. The Program mode the 40D camera automatically sets the exposure settings of aperture and shutter speed but allows the photographer to slide the shutter speed faster or slower and automatically adjusts the aperture. Camera sensors seem to sense colors differently, having a bias or shift in colors. Adding to the confusion is the color rendering of monitors and printers. Just when you think you have it correctly on the monitor screen, the printer's rendition falters.

There are tools and methods of calibrating both monitors and printers for color. Professional photographers and photography labs tend to be quite conscious of color rendering. They want duplicates of each picture to be exactly the same. If you are reproducing your work for profit $$, then you or your print/digital shop needs to develop methods to calibrate and control your color rendering to produce the affect you desire.

I take quite a few pictures of sunsets and sunrises from my car using my phone. And it is difficult to get the correct/actual colors. I like the HDR feature, but that mode skews the exposure and colors. I usually end up manually setting the exposure and then using the app, Pixlr, crop and adjust the image to suit my fancy.

I hope this helps you.

John


----------

