# They should be blue! ;(



## Smiffyboots (Dec 13, 2013)

I'm using a Canon 600d / T3i and shooting in RAW but no matter what lenses I use, the blue LED lights on the tree come out purple. Even playing around with the white balance doesn't make them truly blue. Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

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## mmaria (Dec 13, 2013)

Similar thing was really frustrating for me also. 

I was doing some salad shots, with a purple napkin next to the plate. Well it wasn't purple on the photo, it was blue. 

It's the camera, nothing you can do...


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## The_Traveler (Dec 13, 2013)

Try getting a Gretag Macbeth color checker and include that in a sample shot.
Then you can correct that shot and apply the same corrections to the money shot.


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## amolitor (Dec 13, 2013)

Blue LEDs produce an exceedingly narrow range of colors, so the camera may well respond quite differently to it than the human eye does. You may need to apply local color correction to just the lights.


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## paigew (Dec 13, 2013)

did you do a custom white balance? Standing under the lights?


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## KmH (Dec 13, 2013)

The issue is the color space the camera can make images in, or the editing color space that was used. A color space has a limited gamut of colors it can reproduce.

Most DSLR's can make images in the sRGB or Adobe RGB color spaces. Adobe RGB and sRGB have limited range in the blue part of the color gamut they can reproduce.

Note in the linked to below illustration that most of the blues are in the ProPhoto RGB color space, which is part of the reason why most image editing experts recommend using the ProPhoto RGB color space for editing.
File:Colorspace.png - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## Smiffyboots (Dec 13, 2013)

KmH said:


> The issue is the color space the camera can make images in, or the editing color space that was used. A color space has a limited gamut of colors it can reproduce.
> 
> Most DSLR's can make images in the sRGB or Adobe RGB color spaces. Adobe RGB and sRGB have limited range in the blue part of the color gamut they can reproduce.
> 
> ...



Many thanks, I'm glad it's not my lenses. 

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## FocusTester (Dec 30, 2013)

I wonder why all of the color spaces are skewed to the right of the visible spectrum horseshoe?


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## trojancast (Dec 30, 2013)

I think the more important question is, are you examining your colors on your computer monitor or a print?  Unless your monitor is of high quality and properly calibrated you are simply wasting your time.  If true color is that important to you, and I don't know why, make the investment in your monitor.

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