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Hello all, I figure some of you might have come across this at some point. Maybe you can lend me a hand.

I've been working on some Warmachine models and some Tau lately and for both my primary colour is purple. While the colour scheme looks great in person, no matter what I do, they photograph blue. I'm definitely a novice when it comes to camera settings (even though I generally take decent pics).

Also I don't have photoshop, nor can I afford it or want it, so that as an option is out. Do I need a better camera?

A friend recommended changing white balance on the camera, but I'm worried that will skew the whole colour palette just to get the purple right.

Help!?

My only thought is that your camera has some kind of balance or flash that is altering the composition of your shots. If you want a really cheap way to balance your shots, I would recommend using a white background. Prop something behind your models (anything) and then drape a plain white t-shirt over the backdrop, and across the table. (So the background for your photos is white.) Play around with the macro settings on your camera, and take your photos with a tripod (if you have one) or a timer (if you can). There is a whole host of things you can do that will be more expensive than that, (I think that light boxes are too expensive to justify their cost, but I'm pretty cheap) but I think that might solve your problem.

I haven't done a whole lot of purple, but the purple I have done has turned out alright. I hope that helps.

Learn all of the functions of your camera. Read the manual. Figure out if you can manually set the white balance or if their even is any white balance options, etc.

Take your photographs with plenty of light. If you don't have good lighting take them outside on a slightly overcast day. The clouds will diffuse the suns light and give you good color and soften the harsh shadows.

You can also use white sheets of paper or aluminum foil to reflect sunlight and fill in shadows.

My last bit of advice if you still can't get the color right is to edit the photographs after you've taken them. You can download several free applications that allow you to properly color balance them. Gimpshop is free or if nothing else use the color correction tools in Windows Photo Gallery. Click the "Fix" button, then click on color correction. Super easy.

And best of all everything I mentioned is free or darn near next to free.

 Joyous_Oblivion wrote:
Hello all, I figure some of you might have come across this at some point. Maybe you can lend me a hand.

I've been working on some Warmachine models and some Tau lately and for both my primary colour is purple. While the colour scheme looks great in person, no matter what I do, they photograph blue. I'm definitely a novice when it comes to camera settings (even though I generally take decent pics).

Also I don't have photoshop, nor can I afford it or want it, so that as an option is out.

Photoshop CS2 is free now, but if you don't want it, GIMP is a good alternative.

Do I need a better camera?

Not necessarily. You don't need a really expensive camera to take good pictures, you just need to learn how to use your camera and get comfortable with adjusting its settings.

A friend recommended changing white balance on the camera, but I'm worried that will skew the whole colour palette just to get the purple right.

Help!?

Read these: http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/categoryhotography

Also read this: http://www.finescale.com/How%20To/Articles/2008/05/How%20to%20photograph%20your%20models%20in%20the%20digital%20age.aspx

Read them, think about them, then read them again. These articles should tell you all you need to know about taking better pictures. If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask.

I think I'm being misinterpreted, though thanks for the responses.

I know how to take good pictures, that isn't the issue here.

The issue is photographing purple without it turning out blue.

I've been doing quite a bit of reading since I posted here and it turns out its neither me nor my camera thats at fault, but rather the colour purple itself.

I can get the purple colour almost right if I crank the white balance, but that distorts the other colours.

End result I need to try natural light in a light box, thats the only thing I haven't done.