Is this normal for a parkerized finish? Or is it neglect/rust?

S

Skyyr

New member
I was replacing a trigger in one of my AR's and went to take a picture of it. I couldn't get the lighting right and so I used a flash. When I went back and looked at the photos, I noticed that the one without the flash looks jet black (same as it does in person). However, under intensely bright light, specs of light red start to show up. See the photos below:

http://m.imgur.com/AT2MeOH
http://m.imgur.com/6ljinot

Now, keep in mind this is pretty much a new trigger. I got curious and looked at my fixed FSB AR's and noticed the same thing. Jet black on person/under normal light, some reddish colors under a camera flash. Same thing on the BCG's. My stainless guns and blues finishes don't show any of this.

So... is this rust (meaning, lack of proper rust protection)? Or simply normal for parkerizing? When scrubbed, the cleaning patches I use come back clean. I keep my AR's typically slathered in oil/CLP, and they're stored in gun socks, so I doubt it's corrosion after the fact.
 
Try another picture in daylight without a flash.
Unlike your eyes which automatically "fix" colors to always be "white" a camera can't do that. Digital cameras with "automatic white balance" frequently get thrown off by artificial (light bulbs) illumination resulting in odd color catches. I'm guessing "Red" reflections from parts of the parked surface off-balanced by "White" light coming from say a window.
My Dillon's "silver" parts frequently photograph looking "rusty", but in real life they are shiny silver colored.

(Image (C) Wogpotter 2013)
DSCF1354_zpsa2sdwpwa.jpg
 
I suspect that the discoloration is a photographic artifact. I see some sort of red light in the background in the upper part of the photo. The simple answer is to examine the trigger with the naked eye in good light, and to use your sense of touch to augment what you see. Contrary to common wisdom, photographs can and do lie.
 
Seen on my video screen, there's no red at all on the trigger, but the loader has a caste to it.

One issue with "photographic" reproduction is the camera used - if digital, the sensors and programming can inaccurately record the light picked up and distort it. Pass that thru a different program to display and all sorts of shadings, tones, and variations pop up.

Try photographing Multicam on different backgrounds - a tan or beige carpet, then pale green, with or without flash. Same with Foliage Green, pictures of the same part from the same maker are radically different. A lot of customers can't get an idea if it will match up to their other furniture or not.

I had paint color matched to Cav Arms Foliage Green and it closely matched a Troy pistol grip, but the Minimalist stock I changed to is off - yet photos show it much closer on screen. You can't trust it.
 
Try looking at the trigger through a magnifying lens in sun light. Did this with both blue and Parkerized finishes. Imperfections show quite well under the full visible light spectrum. My lens is a 10x loupe.
 
some reddish colors under a camera flash
Click to expand...

It's some kind of camera weirdness.

Millions of people and animals have been photographed with red eyes. But in natural light, not one of them shows red eyes, well, maybe somebody who is hung-over. But probably not a good idea to flash in their eyes, no sirree! :eek:

Bart Noir
 
Not quite.
Its actually a photograph of the red tissue with the light passing into, & back out of the eyeball.
Its frequently caused by 2 things in combination.
The iris being dilated because of poor light giving a bigger "window".
Compact cameras with the flash close to the lens so there is minimal separation of angle.
 
You're both right. The red color is the color of the retina, that is being recorded because the pupil is large enough and the lens is on the same axis as the lens and the retina, so the light of the flash is going in the pupil, reflecting on a red surface (the blood-rich retina) and coming straight back out to the camera lens. If you take similar pictures of animals, you will see that the color is different because they have a reflective layer in the retina that the human eye lacks. Dogs and cats will often show green pupils in flash pictures. Pre-flash works a little for the problem because it is supposed to constrict the pupil. In reality, it usually just makes a smaller bit of red. Moving the flash off-axis works well.

The point in this context is that there is, I strongly suspect, some red light in the room (again, visible in the upper portion of the second picture) that is being picked up and reflected by the surfaces of the trigger face. The problems that cause red-eye don't appear to be a factor. The flash would have to be filtered to a red color in the same way that the retinal blood supply filters the color of the reflection. That could happen if the photographer used a bounce flash off a red surface, but since we see red ambient light in the second photo, it seems more simple to think that the red is coming from the ambient light.

And the bigger point is it probably is a photographic artifact rather than rust.
 
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