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Nikon D40x Digital Camera

Blue tint when shooting aperture priority

posted by Guykawasaki on Jul 01, 2007


When I shoot using aperture priority, my shots have a blue tint to them. Any ideas?

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Best Solution
posted on Jul 01, 2007
FixYa! (100)

Bogdan


Rank:Guru Guru
Rating: 89%, 356 votes
Hello,

First of all let's explain what aperture priority does in terms of electronics and mechanical/optical changes in the way the camera takes photos.
Unlike most point and shot digital cameras, your one has variable aperture range. Aperture is related to your camera lens. Their main function will be to collect light and direct it to the camera's sensor. The aperture of a lens is the diameter of the lens opening and is usually controlled by an iris.The larger the diameter of the aperture, the more light reaches the image sensor.
Aperture is expressed as "F-stop", for example F2.8 or f/2.8. The smaller the F-stop number (or f/value) the larger the lens opening (aperture). This means that when you're using aperture priority or large aperture values (a smaller f/value) your image sensor (ccd or cmos) will tend to receive more light or slightly overexpose itself.
Most simple digital cameras, the point and shot ones, have a fixed aperture, the lens are fixed and that's set to a so believed "optimum" range in order to produce best pictures when using automatic settings.
SLR or semi SLR digital camera's woun't achieve best performances when using them on automatic settings, they aren't designed in the same way as the simple camera's. These camera's will tend to either overexpose, or have lighting/colour problems or achieve blurry images when using automatic settings. Any SLR or semi SLR camera user will be required to understand the way photography (electronic photography) works in order to achieve the best performances with it's camera.
For your example, I guess the shots have a blue tint on them when you're using natural sun light in your photos, or in room pictures are illuminated by natural sun light. This is the first sign of overexpure, and the best way to reduce it and it's efects is to manually set the aperture range. Note that higher values will reduce the light that passes to the sensor, so you will want to experiment a little with those in order to achieve the best performance. When you take photos in light environments, bright sunny days or in rooms that contain many white surfaces or walls (these reflect the light pretty much and can overexpose the camera even if it doesn't look that bright when you look at them with your own eyes) you may want to use larger aperture value in order to have little light come to the sensor. Look for the highest values in aperture (in your menu) for example F8 or F16. If the pictures come out to dark or miss some details, you may want to use larger apertures (smaller numbers).
Try these tests in order to check if your camera's problem can be solved this way. If not please reply back and we will look on the hardware - firmware side of the problem.

Regarding aperture a quick recap :)
A large aperture allows more light to reach the sensor. It's good when taking portret pictures and also achieves that nice blurry background surrounding your main subject in the picture. It's defined by smaller numbers (for example F1.8 or F1.2 or smaller).
A small aperture allows little light to reach the sensor. It's good to take pictures in bright sun light. It's defined by larger numers (for example F16 or F22 or larger).

Hope this helps,
Bogdan.

Comment by Bogdan, posted on Jul 01, 2007

Jackboy is also right. You could also try playing with the white balance control. Unlike the human eyes, a camera's sensor doesn't know how to interpret colors unless it has a point of reference - the white color. Various colored objects will have different color temperatures compared to the white light, and the camera will be best able to guess that when it has a good white light reference.
In your camera, it isn't recomanded to use auto white balance because a camera can be fooled pretty easily in it's aproximation of the white color. For example if you shot at a scene with no white color in it, the camera can distort colors because the automatic white balance will aproximate white in an erronated way.
Most digital cameras allow you to choose a white balance manually, typically sunlight, cloudy, fluorescent, incandescent etc.SLR or semi SLR digital cameras (like your own) allow you to define your own white balance reference. Before making the actual shot, you can focus at an area in the scene which should be white or neutral gray, or at a white or gray target card. The camera will then use this reference when making the actual shot.
Rating Locked! (?) Guykawasaki has rated this solution as FixYa!
Solution #2
posted on Nov 09, 2007
Helpful (85)

Daveemtb


Rank:Wiz Wiz
Rating: 82%, 61 votes
I believe that your problem may stem from the fact that you normally use program modes that control white balance. It's possible that you have left the white balance set to something innappropriate, that only comes into play when you use PASM modes. Perhaps it is set to incandescent (light bulb icon) which makes daylight look very blue.

Set the WB to auto, or cloudy, or daylight, and you should get better results. Hope this helps.

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Solution #3
posted on Feb 27, 2008
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concept420


Rank:Apprentice Apprentice
Rating: 0%, 0 votes
likely the white balance needs to just be sent to auto. worked for me i found this site searing for the answer to the same problem
thanks guys

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Solution #4
posted on Dec 06, 2007
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CanadaBruce


Rank:Wiz Wiz
Rating: 82%, 30 votes
Check the Shooting Menu and under Optimize Image check under "Custom" and then under "hue adjustment."   It sounds like that may be set to zero.  Depending on whether you are shooting raw or jpeg, you may have to make other adjustments under this menu.
Good luck.

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Solution #5
posted on Jul 01, 2007
Not Rated (0)

jackboy


Rank:Wiz Wiz
Rating: 76%, 3265 votes
Does this mean you are shooting in low light conditions?
Try using the white balance control - see your manual

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