What causes this?

[oh2gocruisin]

I have a Panasonic DMC FZ18, and many of the pictures I take come out with a blue tint - like this one. What causes this, and how do I correct it? I'm going to Alaska this summer and really would like to have some nice, clear pictures. Thanks.

 

Kathy

[dodger501]

I have a Panasonic DMC FZ18, and many of the pictures I take come out with a blue tint - like this one. What causes this, and how do I correct it? I'm going to Alaska this summer and really would like to have some nice, clear pictures. Thanks.

 

Kathy

 

What is your White Balance set to? It should be Daylight or Shade. This will warm the color temperature up.

[shootr]

I have an FZ8, and I just think the software for the white balance is screwed up.

 

I, too, have the exact same issue as yours, it seems I constantly have to go into Photoshop and warm up all the pictures - be it people or places.

 

Dodger501 or someone addressed this somewhere before, which got me working on mine until I was happy with it. Thanks whomever it was!

 

I manually set my white balance to be a bit warmer and it has worked well.

 

Not sure on your model, but mine lets you save two manual white balance settings, and I still have the various pre-programmed ones (which for the life of me I can't see a big difference between).

 

Also, I picked up a tiny Canon for the DW for our anniversary, and side by side her pics are way better than mine - hence my opinion that the camera just has an issue with color balance as it comes from the factory.

 

 

With custom White Balance:

 

With auto White Balance:

[dodger501]

According to this:

 

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicFZ18/

 

there is a white balance setting, even a fine-tune.

[pierces]

In all of the examples, there is some amount of overcast which blocks red light and lends a blue cast to the scene. the "Cloudy" or "Shadows" pre-set white-balance setting usually clears this up.

 

Alternatively, you may want to mount a warming filter like a Skylight (1A) to the front of the lens to give the white-balance a warmer bias. Digital cameras usually try to compensate for minor color-correction filters, but I have found that the 1A and warming polarizers (a polrrizer with a 1A coating built in) seem to help shift color a bit to the warm side.

 

The Skylight doesn't reduce the exposure measurably and can be left on the camera as a protective filter in place of the more common UV(0) filter.

 

The FZ18 takes a 46mm filter diameter.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Tiffen-46mm-SKY-1-A-Filter/dp/B00004ZC95/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=photo&qid=1267275036&sr=1-1

 

Dave

[oh2gocruisin]

Thanks for the responses and suggestions. The Panasonic is the first camera I've owned that is a step up from basic p&s so I'm learning as I go. I had worked with the different white balance settings but wasn't able to get it just right. However, I hadn't tried the fine tuning so I'll experiment with that.

 

Dave, thanks for the info on the filter - I'll look into that as well.

 

Kathy