How to photgraph exactly the color you see with our eyes?

[OneReef]

If I take a picture of my tank in auto WB, obviously it comes out way too blue. If I use white balance setting to take picture of white paper/coffee filter, etc to get 'real color', I lose all the blue of my lights. How can you take a pic that will give you the same color you see through your eyes, say for a 14K bulb?

 

[BlueCorn]

The first thing that you have to understand is that the camera cannot physically see the range of light that your eye can see.

That said, shooting in RAW format and adjusting the color temperature after the shot is generally the best method.

 

[mpoletti]

When shooting our tanks, post shooting processing is almost mandatory. I use a expodisc that removes 99.9% of the blue out of my raw pics. I too have to add some blue back in.
Isn't photography to display what we see? That is what processing is for

 

[IPT]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15112814#post15112814 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by beerguy
The first thing that you have to understand is that the camera cannot physically see the range of light that your eye can see.

That said, shooting in RAW format and adjusting the color temperature after the shot is generally the best method.

Yeah, what he said.... . I've found that often times certain adjustments affect selective areas of the image differently with single layer adjustmets. An adjustment makes the sand look great, but rocks are a little too blue for example. If you really want to tweak and get things to resemble what we see visually you will likely have to use multiple layers of adjustmet using "masks" in PS. Start with RAW as stated and then use the "color balance" and "hue saturation" layers to fine tune.

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

Post Processing is the answer of the day. I stress one of the most importiant aspects of a reef tank camera is the ability to shoot RAW. The only reason you would want to shoot RAW is to have an easier time editing your photographs down the road.

 

[Reef Bass]

+1 for RAW and setting the color temp during post processing. Once you've done it, you can't believe how easy it is, how good the colors look, and that people continue to wallow in blue pics when such an easy solution is available. Seriously.

 

[glparr]

One more vote for RAW. It's the only way, IMO.
Gary