# Blown out reds



## Zv (Oct 18, 2012)

I recently shot some images using a Canon 7D with the 85mm 1.8 and anytime there was anything red or pink in the shot it just kept blowing it out. See the image for what I mean. I know it can be fixed easily in LR etc but is there any way to prevent it in camera? under-expose all shots with red? I already use the faithful picture style so the colors don't run too vibrant but is it just this lens or is it the camera? I also shot some pics today with my 50mm 1.8 and it did the same thing with pink in the shot. What am I doing wrong?


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## awinphoto (Oct 18, 2012)

It depends on the metering mode you have and what you are trying to get it at... Looks like it could be evaluative in which the camera is trying to make everything 18% gray, which is what it is designed to do... More information would help.


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## sanj (Oct 18, 2012)

Zv u shoot RAW or JPEG?


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## bigmag13 (Oct 18, 2012)

nice shot Zv!

I would say that the range of colors in the image is great, and that the cam cant capture them all within a suitable range in this scene. remember that ANY camera (no matter its cost our quality) cant just reproduce everything our eyes see. I ran into this quit often doing events and wedding and receptions, where the beautiful greens would register different from the reds and Caucasian red skin tones and various shades and colors of make up on brides. Or the ambient would be so hard to knock down even when balanced with gels on flash.

What I found to work is to adjust the White Balance Shift "ONLY WHEN SNAPPING A SCENE THAT I THINK WILL HAVE TOO MUCH RANGE BETWEEN COLORS". 

( at this point if you can, go to the shooting menu of your camera which the WBS/BRKT item should be below custom WB expr comp. ,etc. and with the selection dial move a few points towards blue and down a few towards green - play around to see the effects- and take shots of different colr ranges. to bring blue within range do the opposite). 

what I mean by this is that aside from instead of waiting to edit after, i try to get all the colors in range from the start.


it helped me greatly after I shot tons of pics only to find after how difficult and time consuming it was to edit colrs and white balance in post. 

I dont know all of the technical stuff about how it works exactly but it does work for me!


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## sandymandy (Oct 18, 2012)

Picture style doesnt affect the final RAW, only the preview in-camera jpg. Hope u dont shoot jpgs  I also think probably its just a white balance problem.


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## tron (Oct 18, 2012)

I cannot know how the colors were in reality but the colors in the photo look great! So why bother!
On the other hand I understand that you want to control them. Did you shoot in raw? Has any color clipped?


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## agierke (Oct 18, 2012)

it doesn't look like an exposure issue at all to me. exposure looks dead on. it also doesn't look like a white balance issue to me either. if you start messing with the white balance your skin tones are going to start to look off...especially if you start adding in green.

canon sensors have long been overly sensitive to red hues. my 20d and my 5dC rendered reds too saturated as does the 5d2. unfortunately, there isnt a great way of dealing with it in camera without creating even worse problems in other areas of your image. over saturated reds are easily handled in Lightroom or ACR as they have an adjustment tab that can control saturation within a single hue without affecting the rest of the image. you will still have to be careful of the skin tones as many people tend to have alot of pink/red as a part of their coloring.


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## Zv (Oct 18, 2012)

Sorry I should have mentioned I shoot RAW and process in LR. I used evaluate metering, maybe the bright overcast sky was throwing it off? But yeah the exposure was pretty much spot on I don't think I even moved the exposure slider in LR. 

I shot this on cloudy WB which was a bit too warm, I ended up lowering it to about daylight-ish 5300K in post.

I tried shifting the red saturation slider in the camera calibration settings in LR to -30 and it helped bring the reds under control. I have set that as a preset now. 

agierke - yeah I know about the Canon red issue but was just wondering how everyone gets around it.

bigmag13 - thanks, great answer I will look into it but I think WB is better just fixed in post. 

Sandymandy - The pic styles do help me figure out what I want the final image to look like and I use the LR process versions to emulate the jpeg preview I saw in camera. I have a preset for Neutral process version and zero contrast plus my "red shift" fix and it gives a lot of latitude to play with. Try it out.

Thanks for the replies and comments.


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## rpt (Oct 18, 2012)

agierke said:


> canon sensors have long been overly sensitive to red hues. my 20d and my 5dC rendered reds too saturated as does the 5d2.


My 300D gave me grief with bright reds too.


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## Zv (Oct 18, 2012)

This is the fixed version using the red saturation calibration slider in LR.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Oct 18, 2012)

Zv said:


> This is the fixed version using the red saturation calibration slider in LR.


The "Fixed" version looks undersaturated to me. Make sure your monitor is calibrated. As others noted, the original looks great.


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## Zv (Oct 18, 2012)

MT - yeah, now that i look at it on my mobile the original look good. I swear i calibrated the screen. It's not the best screen in the world. Its been giving me headaches tryn to get the color right. I used x-rite software to calibrate, maybe its time i used the 'advanced' setting instead of 'easy'!


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## sanj (Oct 18, 2012)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> Zv said:
> 
> 
> > This is the fixed version using the red saturation calibration slider in LR.
> ...



yep


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## Chris Burch (Oct 18, 2012)

I would pull down the saturation of the magenta slider, not the red. The magenta should have little effect on the skin color, but should pull down the hoodie. For my taste, the original is over-saturated on the hoodie, but doesn't appear to be blown out. I agree that the "fixed" version is overall under-saturated. You might try dropping the green/magenta white balance slider a little more toward green, too.

I did some stage shooting and had issues with intense magenta lights and completely blown out highlights -- almost no problem with any other colors though. I wonder if Canon sensors have some increased sensitivity in the red/magenta range.


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## Zv (Oct 18, 2012)

Tried the magenta slider before posting and it does have an effect but only on the lightest parts of the hoodie. It didnt look right. I prob should have used a more extreme example to begin with but seems everyone is aware of the issue and has come across it at some point. That's all I wanted to know really. I was worried I was doing something obviously wrong. Thanks for the resposnes. I think we can chalk this one down to Canon sensors. I wonder if the newer cameras have the same issue.


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## Chris Burch (Oct 18, 2012)

Well in my case, I was shooting with a 5DIII, so is a problem with the new sensors. I never saw it on the 5DII.


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## sandymandy (Oct 18, 2012)

agierke said:


> you will still have to be careful of the skin tones as many people tend to have alot of pink/red as a part of their coloring.



Perhaps Canon only tests their cameras on japanese people who are often more tanned than ppl from the west. Maybe japanese people skin looks better on canon cameras with some red shift? ???


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## Jenifer World (Oct 19, 2012)

*Heron Bay*

Hi ........



Thanks


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