Beetle

[rjlittlefield]

Four points...

1. This beetle is very shiny and is acting a lot like a mirror.

There is an overall blue cast in the first image, but the most intense blues appear to be a reflection of some blue streak in the foreground, in front of the camera.

Look at the scene reflected in the eye. In the lower part, there is what looks like a light gray platform with two black objects and one intense blue streak on it. You can see the same thing in the recent third image, although because of the overall shift to brown, the blue is not so intense.

What is that blue thing?

2. For the initial image, I suspect you mean "halogen", not "neon". (Neon bulbs are orange-red, used for advertising signs and for indicator lamps in high voltage electronics.) Halogen bulbs are more blue than what the camera expects on "incandescent", so that would explain some blue shift.

3. Usually none of the presets will give accurate color balance. For precise work, there really is no substitute for custom color balance from a white or photo gray card. If the illumination color is mixed, for example normal incandescent and halogen bulbs, then you will always get different colors on different parts of the subject.

4. The first shot especially is lovely! The color contrast between the blue-black shell and the orange hairs is striking. I think it would be less attractive if the lighting were more neutral.

--Rik

Edit: to say not "neon".

[Gérard-64]

Both images have the same background: a deep black colored sheet of paper..