iPhone 4 Photo White Balance Problem: Purple, Blue, or Something Else? - BTW, Nexus One Photo is Fine

A friend/co-worker called me yesterday morning and asked: "What color does a purple object appear in photos on your iPhone?" I happened to have a photo of a large rainbow colored umbrella providing shade for an outdoor vendor. So, I took at look at it and the violet part of the umbrella as well as other colors looked fine. I told him it looked purple/violet to me. He said that purple objects look bright blue on his iPhone 4. So, I wandered over to his area to literally see what he was talking about. I walked over to see a purple rabbit shaped bag sitting on the desk. However, when I looked at it through the iPhone 4's camera view, it looked bright blue. The light in that area came from fluorescent ceiling lights which tend to cast a bluish light. So, I walked over to an area with lights (tungsten, perhaps) that were closer to sunlight and found that the purple object looked purple on my iPhone 4 display. So, I took photos of the rabbit shaped bag under both lighting condition with the plan to write about the iPhone 4's white balance problem. Then, something funny happened. I look at the two photos on my iMac's display and the photo taken under fluorescent light was no longer bright blue. While not quite correct, it was closer to purple. The photo taken under the sunlight like light now looked pink. Photographers will tell you that this is a common problem when dealing with digital photos. Different LCD and CRT displays have different color temperatures and configurations causing all kinds of problems. So, I took a photo of my iPhone 4 display over/next to the iMac display of the two iPhone photos. On my iMac, this iPhone screen shows a blue rabbit shaped bag. It may look slightly different on your display. However, you should be able to see that the three rabbits are completely different colors. I also took a photo of the bag with a Nexus One using its built-in white balance feature. You can see its photo below. THe bag color I see on my screen is an accurate (or very close to it) rendition of the bags actual color. I really like the look of photos taken using the iPhone 4. But, it obviously has some serious white balance issues.

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iPhone 4 Photo White Balance Problem: Purple, Blue, or Something Else? - BTW, Nexus One Photo is Fine

Todd Ogasawara

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Todd Ogasawara