RE: Streamer Color

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Mccauley, Daniel H" <daniel.h.mccauley@xxxxxxxx>

Jeff,

There are a variety of ways to improve color balance when shooting the
digital camera in the dark.

1.  Change color balance to TUNGSTEN.  This will help a lot.

2.  Shoot RAW.  When you shoot RAW, no processing (white balance,
etc...) is done on the image.  You can then adjust white balance when
you convert from RAW to JPG or TIFF etc...

Dan






I don't see any brown...but yes, it's a digital
camera, a Canon EOS Digital Rebel shooting a
five-second exposure.  A shorter exposure exhibits
much less of this "color change":

http://silicon-arcana.com/TC1/IMG_3286.JPG

Really, none of this looks quite like it does to a
human eye, especially the streamers into air.  They're
nearly invisible in the photos, but quite visible in
person!

Take care,
Aaron, N7OE


--- Tesla list <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

 > Original poster: Jeff Larson <jeff@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
 >
 > Hi,
 > I assume you using a digital camera? I have seen
 > this affect before
 > with my digital camera.  The camera in total
 > darkness does not detect
 > enough light to set the
 > white balance properly or the light is not what the
 > camera interprets.
 > The sparks come out looking brownish.  You have
 > brownish and blueish
 > sparks above.  I am not sure why you have both.
 > Maybe the blue
 > sparks are hotter power arcs which are actually
 > supposed to be white
 > or brighter blue?
 > I saw a major difference in spark color in
 > particular sequence of
 > shots from the Ed Wingate's teslathon. If you look
 > at the following
 > pictures from Terry Blake's site you will notice the
 > color change in
 > the coil discharge. In the first photo IMG4707 you
 > will see a nice
 > purple spark and in photo IMG 4712 a brownish spark.
 > Also the first photo the TC is being illuminated by
 > another camera's
 > auto focus illuminator (the red light).   It seems
 > that this helped
 > the setting of the white balance on the canon 20D.
 > This clue is what
 > I needed to discovered this problem with the white
 > balance.
 >
http://www.tb3.com/tesla/ratcb2005/pages/IMG_4707.html
 >
http://www.tb3.com/tesla/ratcb2005/pages/IMG_4712.html
 >
 > I have played around with some raw photos from my
 > canon 20D that
 > exhibited this brownish spark characteristic and I
 > discovered that I
 > could shift the white balance and correct this color
 > problem. I
 > suggest that you try setting your white balance
 > manually when
 > shooting coil photos.  This is what I am going to do
 > from now on.
 > I am not exactly sure of what the white balance
 > should be other than
 > about 4000k to 5000k for the color setting.  Or if
 > your camera
 > doesn't do that, try the florescent light setting. I
 > plan on doing
 > some more experimenting to see what works best.
 >
 > Sorry for running off on a tangent.
 >
 > Jeff Larson
 >
 > Tesla list wrote:
 >
 > >Original poster: stork <stork@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
 > >
 > >Can anyone explain the difference in color of the
 > upper and lower streamers in
 > >
 > >http://silicon-arcana.com/TC1/1_BeforeAndDuring.jpg
 > >
 > >Stork
 > >
 > >
 >
 >
 >
 >