Have you ever been taking some pictures of red roses and noticed that they are almost neon? Or tried to take a picture of a bowl of strawberries and they look like they are bleeding? It happens to me all the time. I am a food photographer and it is extra important for me to get the color as true to life as possible. My strawberries weren’t bleeding, so what is the deal? I have done Google searches and there is not a lot out there on the topic, but here are a few tips that I have figured out to get a true to life red image.
1. Shoot in RAW. You have much more control over the individual channels and the exposure when you shoot in RAW. Camera sensors have a very hard time processing red (and yellow, hot pink, and orange). I tend to underexpose my red images because I can pull out the detail later in post-processing. You can expose the red portion correctly and use the adjustment brush in ACR to expose the rest of the image.
(This is the edited version, I opened it in Photoshop cropped, added a defog, a curves adjustment, and added more yellow and red to the image.)
2. Do not shoot a red image in direct sunlight. It will blow out the red channel completely and you will have a very hard time trying to correct it. I shoot my red images in open shade with a low ISO.
3. You can try bracketing your image or using the negative exposure compensation. Play with it until the your histogram (the red channel) is even and not clipping on either side.
Here are a few websites with some great tips on shooting the color red.
Do you love red? by Isabelle Lafrance Photography
Why are my roses bloody? by The Pioneer Woman
Do not forget to enter your red images in the week’s Creative Mama Photography Challenge. We are celebrating all things red. Add your red images with the tag TCMV5 to our Flickr pool. This week our prize is from The Makerie.
Do you have any tips for shooting red?
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