Why The Yellow?
Jun 19, 2019 18:15:52 #
I hope someone can help me. I was taking photos of ruby throat hummingbirds, and I wonder why some of the feathers, instead of being emerald green, are a golden yellow. Here is the EXEF data: Camera is D750 mounted with Nikon 200-500mm lens, focal length 500mm, 1/4000 sec, f5.6, ISO 2000, manual mode, spot metering (metering off hummer), no flash, auto white balance, shot in raw. The photos are as came out of camera, no in camera processing nor post processing (I did crop for perspective). I just don't think there should be any golden yellow in the feathers. Photo 1 is the normal photo, photo 2, I cropped just the hummer. What am I doing wrong?
Jun 19, 2019 18:20:44 #
The feathers may be iridescent and it is just the way the light is reflecting off them. Iridescence is found all throughout nature.
Jun 19, 2019 18:27:41 #
--Bob
Blurryeyed wrote:
The feathers may be iridescent and it is just the way the light is reflecting off them. Iridescence is found all throughout nature.
Jun 19, 2019 18:54:30 #
jradose wrote:
I hope someone can help me. I was taking photos of... (show quote)
Well to me its just what they should be, they always look like that to me, and not just on camera but to my eyes as well
Jun 19, 2019 19:49:24 #
Adjust the white balance in your raw editor. Sometimes there's a big difference between "as shot" and "auto" and also go through the other choices (daylight, cloudy etc). Don't hesitate to adjust color saturation, vibrance and the other tools available to you. No reason to expect the unedited raw will be exactly as you desire - or saw as your reality.
Aside from raw sooc not being a finished product, most photos online support what others have said in this thread about the color:
https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/ruby-throated-hummingbird#photo4
.
Aside from raw sooc not being a finished product, most photos online support what others have said in this thread about the color:
https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/ruby-throated-hummingbird#photo4
.
Jun 20, 2019 06:21:34 #
billnikon
Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont
Blurryeyed wrote:
The feathers may be iridescent and it is just the way the light is reflecting off them. Iridescence is found all throughout nature.
Jun 20, 2019 06:59:27 #
It's just a trick of the light reflecting off the surface of the wings. A few years ago, Honda had motorcycle paint that seemed to change color as you viewed at different angles.
Jun 20, 2019 08:04:55 #
Relax, you're not doing anything wrong. We have a dead female rubythroat on our China cabinet, and it has the same yellow feathers when the light hits it a certain way....
Jun 20, 2019 09:33:19 #
Linda From Maine wrote:
Adjust the white balance in your raw editor. Somet... (show quote)
AMEN and thank you Linda from Maine......you always have helpful hints that inspire me to try harder and take my time when attempting to improve my pics. I have a lot to learn.Thanks again.
Jun 20, 2019 10:00:28 #
jradose wrote:
I hope someone can help me. I was taking photos of... (show quote)
Quit using vivid, set camera on standard or neutral.
Jun 20, 2019 10:56:08 #
Bird feathers get their color from one of two ways. The most common is pigment. The second is interference patter of the reflected light, same physics that goes into multi-coated lenses for light transmission. Look at the colors of oil spread thin on water, same physics. A blue jays feathers are not blue from pigment (grind it up and it will be gray!), but from how the light reflects. The metallic look on hummingbirds is from how the light reflects and the interference patter. So the angle of the light and reflection can give different colors.
Jun 20, 2019 11:47:21 #
amfoto1
Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA
There's nothing wrong with your camera or images... those are the colors you should see and the image doesn't look over-saturated to me.
Jun 20, 2019 14:46:41 #
I don't know what's normal for this kind of bird but I had a tinker with it and found that WB could be shifted towards blue quite a bit and Tint could be shifted towards green quite a bit. Sometimes things catch the camera out and it gives inappropriate suggestions (even raw files are affected by the camera's suggestions for WB and Tint if your raw processing software knows how to read them).
Jun 20, 2019 16:11:25 #
Blurryeyed wrote:
The feathers may be iridescent and it is just the way the light is reflecting off them. Iridescence is found all throughout nature.
Iridescence can be tricky. I have shot some iridescent flowers where the colors seem different in photos than what the eye sees.
Jun 20, 2019 18:49:46 #
Agree that it is just the Iridescence of the bird. This is why ruby throats don't always show the ruby and purple martins don't always show the purple. Their colors are in the structure of the feathers, not pigment.
If you want to reply, then register here. Registration is free and your account is created instantly, so you can post right away.