Color Differences

[Water Hazard]

Although I do not own and fancy equipment or have any real knowledge of taking photos, I still enjoy when a picture turns out nice.

Having a board like this is great since it provides an opportunity for those of you with the nice equipment and talent to show off for people like me to enjoy.

One thing I find myself taking pictures of is sunsets. I have an older Canon Powershot A60 that I use for the pictures. I've noticed that I often get two types of results...one with a "normal" coloring and one with a golden hue. I've included a copy of examples of each.

I don't know what my camera's settings are. I just switch between AUTO mode and the landscape mode typically. Could this be the difference?

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Here is what I would call "normal" coloring:

Here's the golden coloring:

[Dbl]

Hey Water Hazard thanks for posting the shots, they all look great! The difference you are seeing if you notice in the first shot you have some cloud cover blocking the sun. This gives you a more "normal" look to the shot. The others have the sun visible low in the sky. This is know as the "golden hour" (you can see why) for phototographers. You get that golden low angle warm look to most subjects taken during that time frame. Hope that explains what you are seeing.

[MN Shutterbug]

Those are some nice shots. I don't know anything about your camera, but if you can change the white balance setting, you can change how the final results will look. Also, if you don't care for the golden look, you can also change the color in your software program. Everyone has their own preference.

[Dbl]

WH take a look here for how changing some of the settings in your camera can change how your sunset photos will look.

http://www.fishingminnesota.com/forum/sh...e=2#Post1219534

[Water Hazard]

Dan-

Thanks for your comments and for the link.

In the linked thread, there is talk of RAW in Photoshop. Is that a newer feature? I have an old copy of Photoshop at home that maybe I could use to do some white balance adjustments.

I like both looks of the photos, I just like knowing why things turn out the way they do. It is hard to be repeatable when you aren't sure why you are getting the results that you are (if that makes any sense).

Maybe I can use Photoshop to get ride of that spot in the bottom left corner of the last picture too.

[Steve Foss]

WH, RAW is a mode your camera shoots in, like jpeg. Not all cameras can shoot in RAW, so take a look at your manual. And then, if you CAN shoot in RAW but have a version of photoshop that's too old, PS won't be able to read the camera RAW file.

To complicate matters a bit further, photoshop offers Raw plug in updates as new cameras come out so PS can read the new RAW files, but once a new version of PS comes out they quit updating the older version, so if you buy a camera that came out after they quit updating your version of PS, you pretty much have to update your version of photoshop.

To complicate matters just a LITTLE further, Adobe does offer its own RAW equivalent (called DNG), and you can download the DNG converter free from the Adobe site, convert your older RAW files to DNG and then open them in your older version of PS. Even that, however, depends on just how old your PS is.

Clear as mud?

Anyway, first step is to see if your camera can shoot in RAW mode. Which version of photoshop do you have?