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MegaSpokaneMan

MegaSpokaneMan

Hey all,

The only light in my grow room is a 1000w HPS light. My camera keeps doing funky things when I try to take photos with it on. I have heard: "the light messes with your cameras sensor because of the color of the light." Has any ever heard of this ? Does anyone know what adjustments need to be made ?

- Mega
 
Could you post a image from the camera ?
When it comes to cameras/taking pics light is one of your best friends (or enemy).
Different types of light bulbs produce different color temperatures and affect the outcome but todays digitals compensate for the type of lighting around you but can still produce a slight color variation in your image...example, florescent=green

pictures they say can say a 1000 words...post one :party:
 
Every picture I have ever taken while my HPS is on turns out funky. I am not much of a photographer though, so there may be just some setting I am missing.
 
Try shooting RAW img if you camera can, then use CS5 RAW editor/light room to process ... while I don't have a grow room to test, I'm always amazed what you can do from RAW in either heavy light or no light conditions. IMHO it's the best way to shoot pics.
 
All lightbulbs have different primary colors, depending upon the type of bulb they are. Our eyes can't always perceive the color differences (though sometimes they can), but they do make a world of difference to a camera. The "soft white" incandescent bulbs tend towards yellow, "daylight" indandescents towards blue, standard flourescents towards green, etc. Not only that, but the construction of your camera's body and lense can make a huge difference, too. I bought a point-and-shoot type of digital camera that is waterproof. I bought it when it first came out on the market, so there were no user reviews available. However, six months or so later, there were tons of reviews on it - all complaining about the needed light conditions to yield decent pictures. Apparently how this camera was constructed in order to be waterproof is impacting it's light intake.

You should also be aware that digital cameras can have a "white balance" issue - if you have manual override capability, you can play around with the white balance setting to get your whites truly white. Otherwise, your whites may end up very blue (or other colors, but blue is most common.) Most point-and-shoot digital cameras don't allow white balance adjustment, though some do.

So yes, the type of lighting you use as well as camera construction will impact your pictures. Often bringing in additional light with a different color tendency will help to offset the negative effects of your usual light. For example, I use a halogen desklamp or two when taking food pics for the cooking threads, and I've found that helps offset the combo of kitchen light and flash from the camera that frequently makes my pictures ridiculously dark. It's not 100% foolproof, but it does help.
 
Get you okleys that have polarized lensesput it in front of the camara and wall-aw...well whatever glasses with polarized lenses?
 
Well, I'll assume your getting a somewhat deep yellow lighting (including a overall dark pic that seems out of focus) from your images being those type of bulbs run around 2100k color temp.
If you can override your flash and have it set to manual flash (and if more possible do so in increments of 1/4 power) to see what affect it has. I think we simply need more info about what you are using for pics.
 
geeme said:
... So yes, the type of lighting you use as well as camera construction will impact your pictures. ...
Click to expand...
I completely agree with everything you said. But if you shoot in RAW you can fix everything relating to light and color. This is why I said above to shoot in RAW if possible, BTW any decent camera can shoot RAW, although it might be called different depending on the manufacturer. For example I believe Nikon calls it NEF while adobe and Canon call it RAW AFAIK. Best feature to look for in a new camera and they’ll record pictures both RAW & jpg at same time you shoot.
 
Your HID lights will cause a yellow or greenish colored pic. A lot of times it will have bars running horizontally across the image. HID makes my plants look worse than they are,and my flouros make them look healthier than the are. Are you trying to take pod shots,or of the whole inside of the tent? I have taken shots from about my hood with success. For pod shots,turn the light off and use your flash.
 
WalkGood said:
But if you shoot in RAW you can fix everything relating to light and color.
Click to expand...
Agree, but it's the "if you can" part that we don't know. My little point-and-shoot doesn't have a RAW setting (trust me, I've read the manual, and have used high-end digital cameras, too, although I haven't bought one yet), and Mega hasn't said what kind of camera he has. So yes, if you have RAW capability, Mega, it is better to use that, but if you don't, you may be able to compensate with other lighting.
 
Shooting RAW is the professional way to shoot...........if you intend to use a pro-lab for the photofinishing then having your color monitor balanced correctly helps out a ton.

Although the initial problem seems to relate with the camera's sensor. Does the image flicker or strobe on the view/screen. Can you put the camera in manual mode?...cutting down on the apperature or stop settings.

Years back the 1st consumer video camera's that either used Nevcon,Vidicon, Saticon and even the 1st gen single image chips had blooming/strobe issues when used with high powder Tungsten lighting. Not to bore ya.......but it sounds similar
 
geeme said:
Agree, but it's the "if you can" part that we don't know. My little point-and-shoot doesn't have a RAW setting (trust me, I've read the manual …
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I understand and you are correct, I only mention because you never know when someone is going to upgrade and my post may plant the seed for them to read up on it before they buy.

PIC 1 said:
Shooting RAW is the professional way to shoot...........if you intend to use a pro-lab for the photofinishing then having your color monitor balanced correctly helps out a ton.

Although the initial problem seems to relate with the camera's sensor. Does the image flicker or strobe on the view/screen. Can you put the camera in manual mode?...cutting down on the apperature or stop settings.

Years back the 1st consumer video camera's that either used Nevcon,Vidicon, Saticon and even the 1st gen single image chips had blooming/strobe issues when used with high powder Tungsten lighting. Not to bore ya.......but it sounds similar
Click to expand...
Great points, agreed and while I’ve never shot under those specific lighting conditions I have shot in total darkness or super bright light and have been blown away with the results I can accomplish with camera RAW and CS5. BTW I’m no pro, far from it, only an amateur at best but it's surprising how much it helps amateurs too.
 
Hey all,

My major problem is getting photos that turn our very green, as prodigal son stated. I will post a pic soon... just have to get some batteries charged lol.
 
Your camera has white balance and color temperature settings.
 
Hps has a low color rendering index. Best bet is to use a different source. You can do a lot with image editing, but it will be much better if you use a broader spectrum of color in your light source for the picture. If you have a flashlight or spot light that has a led or ceramic source that will usually work. If you want to get technical any source that has a cri round 80 or more and temperature of +3500 Kelvin will be better. Not optimum, but better and within a tolerance and readily available.
 
Try this: http://www.wikihow.com/Adjust-Your-Digital-Camera's-White-Balance
 
willard3 said:
+18 find the white balance setting even if you have to read the manual.

You don't need RAW, you need the white balance control.
Click to expand...

No one needs RAW and again I agree that in his case setting the correct white balance setting and possibly post processing color adjustments might just do the trick. But if he’s getting green as OP stated and the white balance doesn’t do the trick, there are free photo editing programs, like GIMP, which will allow you to correct the color balance. AFAIK 80% of point and shoot cams don’t have camera RAW setting, not even all DLSRs shoot RAW, I only mentioned because it’s the best way to shoot pictures that you care about and someone else that reads this thread might just care enough to look into it.

I agree 100% it’s not for everyone, although I can say that you do not need to be a pro photographer to use and it’s not as hard to manipulate a RAW file as most might believe. Quote below is from this site and there’s a lot of good information there for anyone interested in reading more about the pros & cons.

.. A raw file is comparable to the latent image contained in an exposed but undeveloped piece of film. It holds exactly what the imaging chip recorded. Nothing more. Nothing less. This means that the photographer is able to extract the maximum possible image quality, whether now or in the future. A good analogy with the traditional world of film is that you have the opportunity to use a different type of developer or development time at any point in the future if one comes along that you think might do a better job of processing the image.
— Raw files have not had while balance set. They are tagged with whatever the camera's setting was, (either that which was manually set or via auto-white-balance), but the actual data has not been changed. This allows one to set any colour temperature and white balance one wishes after the fact with no image degradation. It should be understood that once the file has been converted from the linear space and has had a gamma curve applied (such as in a JPG) white balance can no longer be properly done.
— Possibly the biggest advantage of shooting raw is that one has a 16 bit image (post raw conversion) to work with. This means that the file has 65,536 levels to work with. This is opposed to a JPG file's 8 bit space with just 256 brightness levels available. This is important when editing an image, particularly if one is trying to open up shadows or alter brightness in any significant way.
etc. etc. etc. …
Click to expand...

Nuff said from me on the subject ...
 
For a pro shoot you would balance the light sources, to tungsten for indoors, and to daylight for outdoors. Balancing the lights/windows includes using gels from studio lighting stores so you have one even color temperature. Question: Are there windows or daylight leaking in? Please explain your grow room and all light sources when you take the picture.
 
RAW > Any other source - As for this light issue, if you really want to know how to solve it, buy a light meter. AWB is your best bet if you are simply a point and shoot camera person. There are many other good points in posts above but without us knowing all light source it is a difficult issue to solve. When I shoot in my white box, I turn off all outside source of light.
 
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