I have an issue of getting similar color of background as the subject, most of the time (not all) the image comes out like this, the water in the background is certainly not the color it captured in the image, is it issue of using wrong white balance or something else? i have many images which has this issue, can someone guide me? by the way, i am using Nikon D3300 & Sigma 150-600mm sports

enter image description here

  • Have you tried to correct the white balance? Are you shooting RAW? – Olivier Apr 28 '17 at 8:38
  • yes i am shooting RAW, i have tried to correct white balance in post, but it does not mostly help – maxchirag Apr 28 '17 at 8:39
  • Related: photo.stackexchange.com/questions/10076/… – Olivier Apr 28 '17 at 8:39
  • Can you post before/after white balance correction? A link to your RAW file might help too. Are you shooting with WB as "auto"? – Olivier Apr 28 '17 at 8:45
  • 5
    What on Earth is "the water in the background is certainly not the color it captured in the image" supposed to mean? – user29608 Apr 28 '17 at 9:05

After looking at your RAW, nothing seems wrong with your camera. The White Balance might be a little off, but it really depends on what you want to do. Each color channel is fine and I see no trick due to bad interpolation during the RAW development.

You have been shooting at 1/30 F/9 ISO 1600. As the image is correctly exposed, you were probably shooting with low luminosity (Ev100 about 7) so maybe 2 phenomena appeared:

If you want to be sure about your camera, you might want to calibrate it (see What do I need to photograph paintings with accurate color? and How do I ensure good color reproduction when photographing paintings with a mid-level DSLR? for some explanation about camera calibration).

As a side note, your image isn't very sharp. I know that the Sigma 150-600 at 600mm is sharpest about f/11 (see photographyblog.com), but 1/30 seems really slow, even for a sitting duck. You probably have encountered motion blur and/or camera shakes. Given your low light condition, you might have gotten a better result at f/6.3... but your duck is still nice :)

  • 1
    Hello Olivier, thank you for your response, yes, regarding the camera settings, it was very dark and i had no option but to go down to 1/30 but camera was on ground and i know the image is not sharp (its fine) what i am really concerned about is the color of the water, if you see the color matches duck's color and the water is certainly was not reflecting that color. – maxchirag Apr 28 '17 at 11:57
  • 4
    I don't know what is reflected in the water, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was about the same color than the duck. We have a saying in France "La nuit, tous les chats sont gris" : by night, all cats are gray, meaning that color fidelity by night is near impossible. – Olivier Apr 28 '17 at 12:04
  • "sitting duck" That is funny. – Rafael Apr 29 '17 at 16:33

Your Answer

