I'm stumped on colors.

[Brooks P]

Sometimes it’s right there in front of you. I was sitting in the living room playing with my camera and flash, and when I looked up I saw what I thought was a good photo opportunity.

The camera setup
Nikon D50
Focal Length: 100mm
Optimize Image: Custom
Color Mode: Mode II (Adobe RGB)
Long Exposure NR: Off
2006/10/12 09:11:36.6
Exposure Mode: Manual
White Balance: Auto
Tone Comp.: Medium Low
Compressed RAW (12-bit)
Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern
AF Mode: AF-S
Hue Adjustment: 0°
Image Size: Large (3008 x 2000)
1/125 sec - F/8
Flash Sync Mode: Not Attached
Saturation: Normal
Exposure Comp.: 0 EV
Sharpening: Normal
Lens: 70-300mm F/4-5.6 G
Sensitivity: ISO 200

The flash
SunPak 383 Auto, set at Full power and angled up at 75°.

The first picture was converted using PSE4.
I set WB to flash, and adjusted both Exposure while pressing the Alt-key and adjusting so there was just a few dots showing where the reflections from the brass tacks are on the sofa. Did pretty much the same with Shadows, only a slight loss in the upper right corner. I opened Levels and using the eye-droppers I set the White using the white of the babies eye, and the Black using the dogs pupil. I then applied PSE4’s auto skin tone correction by clicking on the babies forehead – I noticed very little change. USM (65/1.5/2) and resize and save.
Both my Daughter (the babies mother) and my Wife like this photo. I like this photo too, but I think it might be a little too saturated, too something?
http://bmiddleton.smugmug.com/photos/102206970-L.jpg


This is processed through Adobe Lightroom. Again I made sure WB was set to Flash, and then I clicked on the Auto key. I’m thinking that this might actually represent a better rendering of the true colors, or is it too blue?
http://bmiddleton.smugmug.com/photos/102206949-L.jpg


Anybody have any comments or thoughts?

[Steve Cavigliano]

Hello Brooks,
I used to date a girl who lived in Lemon Grove :lust Back when I was in HS in San Diego. :D

My take, the first one is too orange (red and yellow) and the second is a bit too magenta and looks a little flat.

The shot is a bit on the hot side (over exposed). That blankie is blown out in places and the baby's face is a bit too bright for my taste. But, you did a great job exposing her beautiful eyes :clap

I did a quick edit and came up with this. Basically just got the red and yellow out and tried to reduce the brightness just a bit. Also added some curves for contrast. You might want to bump the saturation a bit :dunno

http://www.pbase.com/slo2k/image/68502495/original.jpg

This (http://www.smugmug.com/help/skin-tone) link may help some :-)


Steve

[Brooks P]

Thanks for looking. The original didn't appear to be over exposed when I looked at the histogram, if anything a bit under exposed, but that was before ACR. Unfortunately I don't know how to make the original NEF version available, but I did convert it to JPEG using View 6 with no adjustments, then converted from Mode II to sRGB and resized with PSE-4. I wish I had the NEF file available, because I would love to see what someone could do with it. Here is the more or less unaltered JPEG looks like.

http://bmiddleton.smugmug.com/photos/102287732-L.jpg

[Steve Cavigliano]

Thanks for looking. The original didn't appear to be over exposed when I looked at the histogram, if anything a bit under exposed, but that was before ACR. Unfortunately I don't know how to make the original NEF version available, but I did convert it to JPEG using View 6 with no adjustments, then converted from Mode II to sRGB and resized with PSE-4. I wish I had the NEF file available, because I would love to see what someone could do with it. Here is the more or less unaltered JPEG looks like.

http://bmiddleton.smugmug.com/photos/102287732-L.jpg

Yeah, I think you need to play around more during conversion. This jpg was much easier to correct, than the 1st one. A Levels layer mask using the brighest edge of the blanket for the white point and a touch of curves.

http://www.pbase.com/slo2k/image/68517078/original.jpg


Steve

[claudermilk]

You know, sometimes the subject just transcends the techical minutiae. Steve's last try looks good to me. Great capture. :clap

[Brooks P]

I'm beginning to understand Levels but Curves are still pretty much a mystery to me. I've bought Scott Kelby's book for digital photographers and was surprised to find he doesn't cover Curves, guess I'll have to look elsewhere.

[ONESHOT]

I'm beginning to understand Levels but Curves are still pretty much a mystery to me. I've bought Scott Kelby's book for digital photographers and was surprised to find he doesn't cover Curves, guess I'll have to look elsewhere.

YER I AGREE THE LAST ONE LOOKS GOOD WITH THE SKIN TONES.
BUT IM ONLY LEARNING :thumb

[photogmomma]

Curves?!? You want to understand curves? Well, I'd just check out the videos for Lightroom! Seriously, even if you NEVER plan on using it, the tools inside Lightroom do some amazing things with curves and I never understood them 'til I watched this video. (Okay, I sorta did, but not really...)

Anyway... Here's the video. (BBIAS to comment on the photo.)

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom/video/

(Watch the "basic correction" video to get an idea....)

[photogmomma]

Why color? I personally am a huge fan of B&W when it comes to expressions...

I created a small vignette around this and then adjusted curves. I wasn't too fond of the onesie (yeah, it's cute in real life, but not as great for photos! LOL!).... Ahh, well! At least the kiddo and the expressions are cute as can be!!!

This is what I did: