Question for you digital folk!

[ehasler]

Is there any way to get the lovely purple colours that Velvia records on long exposures with a DSLR?

For example:

[rico]

I haven't a clue what your question even means, but thats a sweet photo Ed!

[Graham.J]

Photoshop? Honestly don't know but that's a fantastic picture, must go to London sometime to do some snapping.

[simpo two]

Personally I'd experiment with Image>Adjust>Colour Balance. 'Hue' might be worth a shot too. Or you could import your picture and use Colour Picker to find out what it really is in terms of HSL

[trackdemon]

The answer, as with so many things I in photography, is: $$$$$$$$$

[ehasler]

How does $$$$$$$ help though? What would you need to do to turn a digital version of that pic (with accurate colours) into a "long exposure Velvia" coloured pic?

[simpo two]

ehasler said:

How does $$$$$$$ help though? What would you need to do to turn a digital version of that pic (with accurate colours) into a "long exposure Velvia" coloured pic?

To quantify, £400 for PhotoShop CS

[ehasler]

Got that already

My question is more to do with how easy it would be to do.

[gravymaster]

Fred miranda offers a digital velvia plugin. Not sure if that would work though..

[simpo two]

ehasler said:

My question is more to do with how easy it would be to do.

Well, like I said, Image>Adjust>Colour Balance, then try hoofing up the red, which will make blues look more purple. If you don't want the effect applied evenly, select the area in a way of your choosing.

[CVP]

Can be done


Admitedly not as purple as yours but got this a few weeks ago. Did a bit of playing with levels, hue & stuaration, contrast and some sharpening but nothing too extreme.


Chris

[simpo two]

CVP said:

Did a bit of playing with levels, hue & stuaration, contrast and some sharpening but nothing too extreme.

However that's changed the buildings as well. My first thoughts would be to select the sky using the Magic Wand tool at approporiate tolerance, then you can apply the colour to just the sky.

[parrot of doom]

I think you'd have to filter the image twice. Once to remove any coloration that the CCD introduces over such a long exposure, and once again to simulate the effect of Velvia film.

I suggest you take some long exposure images of a colour balance card, and experiment getting the values right. Then shoot the same card on Velvia, and apply the differences to your digital shots.

[CVP]

simpo two said:

CVP said: Did a bit of playing with levels, hue & stuaration, contrast and some sharpening but nothing too extreme. However that's changed the buildings as well. My first thoughts would be to select the sky using the Magic Wand tool at approporiate tolerance, then you can apply the colour to just the sky.

M'mm will give this a whirl. To be fair the HoP are lit by big Tungsten floodlights, so using any kind of long exposure is going to get that kind of colouring in the building. Hang on...I'll go an have a play with the white balance and report back...

A quick play as the original NEF files are at home. Selected the HoP and changed the hue & stauration to make them less orange.




However, to answer Ed's original quesiton, Yes I think you can get the nice Velvia type purples on a long exposure D SLR image.

What do you think, is the second one better??


Chris

>> Edited by CVP on Tuesday 14th December 10:48

[V6GTO]

Chris,
I think the second one is an improvement, it looks more natural somehow, and sharper too. Nice one!

Martin.

[ehasler]

What's noise like on exposures between 2-30 seconds? Does the noise reducing "stuff" work well?

[CVP]

On the long expsoure front you do get some noise but you have two options;
1) In camera noise reduction, or
2) Specialist application

From my own limited testing on the D100 I'm fine with exposures up to about 8 to 10 seconds shot in raw format. Not too much noticeable noise and no in camera of post camera trickery required.

I have got one exposure that was about 20-25 seconds and looking at the night sky I can see noise there. This was in raw format and no in camera noise reduction applied. Nothing like the creamy smooth background on your Tower Bridge image.

I'm truying some noise reduction s/w and will report back

Chris

[ThatPhilBrettGuy]

ehasler said:

What's noise like on exposures between 2-30 seconds?

30 seconds of moon light straight out of camera:-

ehasler said:

Does the noise reducing "stuff" work well?

Generally yes. RAW out of camera again, first original :-

Then a bit of NeatImage (with very little care and attention) :-

If you'd like some higher res examples just drop my a line Ed.

Cheers

Phil

[Bee_Jay]

If you wanna play with some Noise software download the free community edition of Noiseware - very cool...

[simpo two]

So, Ed, when are you going to get one?