Any tips for enhancing rainbows?

In article , ray
wrote:

Have you tried a polarizing filter?

it's a little late for that.

Ted Nolan tednolan wrote:
I've noticed that whenever I take a picture of a rainbow, it looks much less
impressive than it did to my naked eye.

For instance this one from yesterday is ok:

http://www.tednolan.net/misc/p1120927.jpg

but looked much better in real life.

Any tips for punching rainbows up in GIMP?

Alternatively, can anyone give an explanation
of why photos of rainbows tend to be disappointing
compared to the Mk1 human eyeball ?

I've experienced this too.

(some of the corrections in this thread
have been pretty good, BTW)

BugBear

Ted Nolan tednolan wrote:
In article ,
John Navas wrote:
On 30 Jun 2010 07:08:42 GMT, in ,
(Ted Nolan tednolan) wrote:

I've noticed that whenever I take a picture of a rainbow, it looks much less
impressive than it did to my naked eye.

For instance this one from yesterday is ok:

http://www.tednolan.net/misc/p1120927.jpg

but looked much better in real life.

Any tips for punching rainbows up in GIMP?
1. Adjust levels
2. Correct color
3. Increase saturation

http://i48.tinypic.com/2k11fk.jpg


Oh, very nice!

Thanks

yes, good on the colors, but how 'bout that stack?? Quite some
distortion, unless it's about to fall down.

--
John McWilliams

In article ,
(Ted Nolan tednolan) wrote:

I've noticed that whenever I take a picture of a rainbow, it looks much less
impressive than it did to my naked eye.

For instance this one from yesterday is ok:

http://www.tednolan.net/misc/p1120927.jpg

but looked much better in real life.

Any tips for punching rainbows up in GIMP?

Ted

Manual RGB level correction, a saturation boost, and 50% reduction:
http://www.pixelmemory.us/~mcmurtri/p1120927.jpg

Of course I have no idea what it's supposed to look like because I
wasn't there. Maybe I ruined a sunset.
--
I won't see Google Groups replies because I must filter them as spam

On 30/06/2010 17:24, bugbear wrote:
Ted Nolan tednolan wrote:
I've noticed that whenever I take a picture of a rainbow, it looks
much less
impressive than it did to my naked eye.

For instance this one from yesterday is ok:

http://www.tednolan.net/misc/p1120927.jpg

but looked much better in real life.

Any tips for punching rainbows up in GIMP?

Alternatively, can anyone give an explanation
of why photos of rainbows tend to be disappointing
compared to the Mk1 human eyeball ?

I've experienced this too.

The problem is that the dynamic range of the scene is too high for a
camera to handle satisfactorily. It is one place where HDR imaging might
help if you have a bracketed set of exposures.

Basically the human can distinguish brilliant pure red light as truly
pure red whereas the camera sees it as bright first then coloured second
(ie pastel shade). Weaknesses in the filter (true also for film) allow
enough crosstalk between the colour channels that it desaturates.

You can demonstrate this under much more controlled conditions by
photographing the various brightly coloured LED indicators on hifi and
TVs at varying exposures.

(some of the corrections in this thread
have been pretty good, BTW)

You can get something of the look and feel back by careful use of
histogram curves, contrast and brightness. But the eye is just so much
better at seeing bright coloured light as truly saturated colour.

Regards,
Martin Brown

ray wrote:
Ted Nolan tednolan wrote:

I've noticed that whenever I take a picture of a rainbow, it looks much
less impressive than it did to my naked eye.

For instance this one from yesterday is ok:

http://www.tednolan.net/misc/p1120927.jpg

but looked much better in real life.

Any tips for punching rainbows up in GIMP?

Ted

Have you tried a polarizing filter?

Won't work. Polarizing filters improve sky contrast when the camera
is aimed at roughly 90 degrees from the sun. Rainbows always happen
opposite the sun.

--
Ray Fischer

In article ,
(Ray Fischer) wrote:

ray wrote:
Ted Nolan tednolan wrote:

I've noticed that whenever I take a picture of a rainbow, it looks much
less impressive than it did to my naked eye.

For instance this one from yesterday is ok:

http://www.tednolan.net/misc/p1120927.jpg

but looked much better in real life.

Any tips for punching rainbows up in GIMP?

Ted

Have you tried a polarizing filter?

Won't work. Polarizing filters improve sky contrast when the camera
is aimed at roughly 90 degrees from the sun. Rainbows always happen
opposite the sun.

A rainbow has polarization so a polarization filter does have an
influence. Whether or not it helps depends on conditions and how much
of the rainbow is in the photo.
--
I won't see Google Groups replies because I must filter them as spam

On 01/07/2010 17:41, Kevin McMurtrie wrote:
In ,
(Ray Fischer) wrote:

wrote:
Ted Nolantednolan wrote:

I've noticed that whenever I take a picture of a rainbow, it looks much
less impressive than it did to my naked eye.

For instance this one from yesterday is ok:

http://www.tednolan.net/misc/p1120927.jpg

but looked much better in real life.

Any tips for punching rainbows up in GIMP?

Ted

Have you tried a polarizing filter?

Won't work. Polarizing filters improve sky contrast when the camera
is aimed at roughly 90 degrees from the sun. Rainbows always happen
opposite the sun.

A rainbow has polarization so a polarization filter does have an
influence. Whether or not it helps depends on conditions and how much
of the rainbow is in the photo.

A PL Filter can only remove light and so is only good against unwanted
polarized light. If the rainbow is polarized the PL can only attenuate
it, and not accentuate it.

--
Bertrand

On Thu, 01 Jul 2010 19:40:41 +0200, Ofnuts wrote:

On 01/07/2010 17:41, Kevin McMurtrie wrote:
In ,
(Ray Fischer) wrote:

wrote:
Ted Nolantednolan wrote:

I've noticed that whenever I take a picture of a rainbow, it looks much
less impressive than it did to my naked eye.

For instance this one from yesterday is ok:

http://www.tednolan.net/misc/p1120927.jpg

but looked much better in real life.

Any tips for punching rainbows up in GIMP?

Ted

Have you tried a polarizing filter?

Won't work. Polarizing filters improve sky contrast when the camera
is aimed at roughly 90 degrees from the sun. Rainbows always happen
opposite the sun.

A rainbow has polarization so a polarization filter does have an
influence. Whether or not it helps depends on conditions and how much
of the rainbow is in the photo.

A PL Filter can only remove light and so is only good against unwanted
polarized light. If the rainbow is polarized the PL can only attenuate
it, and not accentuate it.

Digital math will get the job done. Use a tripod. Take two images, one
with the rainbow attenuated, and subtract the images to emphasize the
rainbow.
--
Mike Russell - http://www.curvemeister.com

In article ,
(Ted Nolan tednolan) wrote:

I've noticed that whenever I take a picture of a rainbow, it looks much less
impressive than it did to my naked eye.

For instance this one from yesterday is ok:

http://www.tednolan.net/misc/p1120927.jpg

but looked much better in real life.

Any tips for punching rainbows up in GIMP?

Ted


Don't know about Gimp, but Auto levels in Photoshop does wonders:

http://i45.tinypic.com/35hls0n.jpg

--
m-m
http://www.mhmyers.com