After spotting a lovely little violet girl today at the local shop I tried to console myslef by taking photos of a couple of birds I already have in violet, particularly one very similiar to the shop bird. However when I try to take a photo, with or without the flash the violet doesn't come out and she just looks cobalt! Does anyone else have this problem or know how to overcome it?

Yes, the only way to overcome it is to have the bird in the sunlight and then take a picture without flash that is how I get Merlin's natural look. The flash either makes him too bright of a blue or washes him out never does justice to his violet coloring.

After spotting a lovely little violet girl today at the local shop I tried to console myslef by taking photos of a couple of birds I already have in violet, particularly one very similiar to the shop bird. However when I try to take a photo, with or without the flash the violet doesn't come out and she just looks cobalt! Does anyone else have this problem or know how to overcome it?

I find the same thing with photos of Charley. He is a lovely grey with the cinnamon markings on his wings (sorry I'm not familiar with official names for it!!!), in photos he comes up as almost pure white. On the other hand his blue cere comes out much more brilliant blue than in real life. As they say, I guess it's all in the lighting, natural light (sun) and no flash is undoubtedly the way to go.

Edited May 3, 200817 yr by thk

Direct sun light ,

it's to do with the uv rays, Just like if you put them under a black light the yellow ones GLOW

There are a few settings you can play with on your camera to overcome this. But be aware all monitors do not display colors in the same way, so what you see on your monitor may not be exactly what others will see if you post pictures on the forum. First of all, take your pictures without the flash. The flash washes out the colors, and does not help give an accurate reproduction of colors on an instant camera. In many cameras the flash is located too close to the lens anyway so the light is relected back too strongly. If you can change the white balance setting on your camera, that might help also. Your light source should be behind you, you should get much better pictures if you are not shooting into the light source (lamp, sun, whatever). Incandescent lighting will give a slightly truer color than typical flourescent indoor lighting also, if your camera has settings to compensate for the lighting you might try playing around with those also. Good luck! Violet is a tough color to accurately photograph.

I find when photographing violet budgies, that those taken in outside but shade conditions come out the true shade of violet.

It's hard work photographing budgies outside at my place we are on a very windy hill and they tend to get a bit flighty in the small cage. I've been experimenting with taking photos indoors under different light, this isn't too bad:

That sure looks nice and violet to me! I try to take all my photos in natural light without flash. The flash really does stuff colours up in photos.

Believe it or not Bea, that photo doesn't even do her ustice, she's much brighter!