Over-saturated reds problem (or user error)

[AlbertoDeRoma]

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I've noticed that in many of the pictures taken with my Digilux 2 the reds have a tendency to come out over saturated (I believe that's the right term.) This does not seem to happen with any other color.

 

I've included 2 pictures that hopefully show the problem.

 

Is this a user error (I still consider myself a newbie) or some problem with the sensor?

 

Thanks for the help,

 

EDIT: I noticed that the uploaded pictures don't manifest the problem very well, so I'll put another capture which, hopefully, will show the problem better.

 

Alberto

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[AlbertoDeRoma]

Here's a picture that hopefully show the problem a little better.

 

Alberto

[AlbertoDeRoma]

And another ...

[daveleo]

i am not sure that you are looking at oversaturated reds, but i'm still playing around with this.

i think you are looking at out-of-focus red areas where the patch of color is smearing.

 

i took 2 shot here (below) .... i can't decide if the loss of some red detail in the stocking is oversaturation.

the tomatoes are not as red as the stocking and they have no surface details, but don't look oversaturated to me.

 

i set the contrast on "high" as you had in your photos.

[Peyton Hoge]

I've noticed that in many of the pictures taken with my Digilux 2 the reds have a tendency to come out over saturated (I believe that's the right term.) This does not seem to happen with any other color.

 

I've included 2 pictures that hopefully show the problem.

 

Is this a user error (I still consider myself a newbie) or some problem with the sensor?

 

Thanks for the help,

 

EDIT: I noticed that the uploaded pictures don't manifest the problem very well, so I'll put another capture which, hopefully, will show the problem better.

 

Alberto

 

They do look a little too red on my monitor. I took a little red out in PS, and I think these look more natural.

[elgenper]

These look like red channel clipping to me; one of the few real problems with this camera (and, arguably with many other cameras as well). Bright red subjects, esp. red flowers, come out as texture-less red blobs in jpg images.

 

There are ways to tackle the problem, however, but they depend on learning to identify situations where they occur (not too difficult once you get the feel for it). One way is to lower the saturation and cotrast settings in the camera. Even more effective is dialling in -1 to -1.5 steps of exposure compensation (spot metering plus manual will allow better control).

 

If you can, shoot in raw. This gives you more headroom and PP will be more effective. Only, remember that what you´ll see on the LCD is still a clipped jpg index image.

[lykaman]

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Not that mine is perfect, I would suggest try various settings on the DL4 & maybe some light PS work..

[rsolomon]

Alberto,

overall is the white balance operating properly, i find the auto setting at times does not operate as expected - especially indoors.

[AlbertoDeRoma]

Hi guys,

 

Thank you for the responses (as well as your experiments/tweaks.) I know that it's not a focus problem, because when I desaturate the image, the details (e.g. the "veins" in the rose petals) come out quite nicely even in the saturated parts.

 

Daveleo, your first pic (the sock) shows - IMO - exactly the same problem, if you desaturate it I am sure you'll get the details back.

 

I did have the Saturation on high on my D2 when taking those pictures, but I did not expect it to clip as much as it did. I don't have a problem when I increase the saturation (or vividness on the DL4.) I will dial the saturation back and see if that fixes it.

 

Thank you all for the suggestions - I'll go experiment and report back.

 

Alberto

[daveleo]

is this a computer monitor saturation problem??

 

if the jpg image file itself oversaturated in the camera so it has lost detail, how does the computer recover the lost detail that (if it was the cameras fault) is permanently lost from the image file ??

[AlbertoDeRoma]

is this a computer monitor saturation problem??

 

if the jpg image file itself oversaturated in the camera so it has lost detail, how does the computer recover the lost detail that (if it was the cameras fault) is permanently lost from the image file ??

 

I don't believe it's a computer monitor problem since I have it calibrated and I've never noticed it before - but it's possible. Of all the descriptions, I believe that "red channel clipping" is the most likely explanation.

 

Alberto