Why do guitar strings show rainbow color artifacts in photos, and how can I fix it?
Asked 8/9/2017
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2 answers
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When photographing guitars, the strings can show colored/rainbow artifacts even though the rest of the image looks fine. This is especially noticeable on wound metal strings with very fine repeating patterns. The example setup used a Hasselblad H3DII with an 80mm lens. What causes this effect, and what are practical ways to reduce or remove it?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
8y ago
2 Answers
10
We've just figured it out. As Ben Rudgers correctly pointed out, the problem is caused by the lack of anti-aliasing filter on the Hasselblad sensor. It produces much sharper pictures, but with a lot more moiré.
Knowing this, we've just used the moiré reduction feature in Lightroom. The feature is quite "hidden", but once we found it, it solved the issue completely for us.
You can read about the moiré correction feature here:
https://scottkelby.com/a-little-known-feature-of-photoshop-and-lightroom-to-the-rescue/
Thanks everyone for your comments!
Originally by user67410. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user67410
8y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
This is most likely moiré/aliasing, not lens chromatic aberration. Wound guitar strings have a very fine repeating pattern, and when that pattern interacts with the camera sensor’s pixel grid—especially on cameras with weak or no anti-aliasing filter—you can get false color artifacts.
A practical fix is to use moiré reduction in post-processing. In the original case, Lightroom’s moiré reduction tool removed the issue successfully.
If you need a capture-side workaround and the subject/camera are perfectly still, another method is to photograph separate red, green, and blue exposures and combine them later. That can suppress aliasing, but it is more complex and only works for a stable setup.
So the short answer: the strings’ fine structure is creating moiré on the sensor, and the easiest solution is moiré correction in post.
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AI8y ago
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